IN THE 1980s, when the world was still learning how to wear luxury on its wrist, Louis Vuitton released its first-ever timepieces: the LV I and LV II. Designed by Italian architect Gae Aulenti, fresh from transforming the Gare d’Orsay into a museum, they were pebble-shaped curiosities, more sculpture than watch, with crowns at 12 o’clock and dials that looked like they’d been drawn with a ruler and nerve. Decades later, those watches are back – or rather, reborn – as the Louis Vuitton Monterey.

The name itself is embedded in myth. Collectors affectionately dubbed the originals “Monterey”, a play on the French montre (watch) and the American twang of its new-found cult. Today, the Maison’s La Fabrique du Temps revisits the design, distilling Aulenti’s avant-garde whimsy into a 39 mm case of yellow gold, its glossy Grand Feu enamel dial rendered in pure white, one of the hardest hues to master. Beneath that immaculate face lies a new heartbeat: the in-house automatic calibre LFT MA01.02, offering a 45-hour power reserve and the quiet hum of 28,800 vibrations per hour.

Artistic Director Matthieu Hegi describes the process as “a symbiosis between the old and present”, and the Monterey lives up to that promise. The signature pebble form, crown at twelve, and lug-less silhouette remain, but everything feels tauter, more deliberate. The enamel dial alone is an act of devotion, twenty hours of layering, firing, and cooling to achieve its depth and translucence. Even the colour is alive with subtle tension: the red and blue hour tracks, a wink to the graphic sharpness of the 1988 original, now sit beneath white gold syringe hands.

What’s particularly compelling is the way the Monterey bridges culture and technique. The original 1988 model emerged at a moment when design was flirting with futurism but still tethered to tradition, a tension Aulenti captured perfectly. It was also far from a commercial success.

The original watches that inspired the current Monterey.

The new edition refines this audacity. It also comes at a point in time when audiences are craving archive designs for their authenticity and originality. Case proportions have been subtly reworked so the pebble form never feels bulky, while the Grand Feu enamel, notoriously volatile in the kiln, underscores La Fabrique du Temps’ confidence in craft. Even those red and blue scales do more than echo history; they gesture toward Vuitton’s own graphic language, where fashion and horology share the same aesthetic grammar. In wearing one, you carry both the defiance of the 1980s and the precision of contemporary savoir-faire, a rare equilibrium rendered in gold and glaze.

Turn it over and the craftsmanship continues unseen. Beneath the closed caseback beats that rose-gold rotor trimmed with LV’s monogram V-notches, a quiet flex of precision. Only 188 pieces exist, each engraved accordingly, the number hidden just beneath the leather strap.

Louis Vuitton Monterey watch

The price for the new Monterey is suitable up there, too, with a tag of AUD$92,500.

Where the original was radical, the Monterey is refined. It isn’t nostalgia but dialogue, between eras, artisans, and the idea of luxury itself. Aulenti’s design once challenged what a watch could look like; Louis Vuitton’s reissue challenges what heritage can mean. Faithful yet futuristic, it’s a reminder that some revolutions are worth repeating. This time, in gold and enamel, ticking softly at twelve.

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