Louis Vuitton reissues the Monterey, a watch that kept its following during almost forty years off the market. The 1988 version, drawn by architect Gae Aulenti, stacked five coaxial hands for world time, full calendar, moon phase, alarm and current time. The case had no normal lugs and placed the crown at twelve o’clock. Collectors called it the unicorn. The October 2025 edition offers 188 examples in yellow gold with a grand feu enamel dial and an automatic movement from La Fabrique du Temps, replacing the original quartz calibre.
The return shows that fashion houses now hold real watchmaking skill. When Aulenti sketched the first Monterey, Louis Vuitton owned no movement manufacture and hired IWC Schaffhausen to create the complicated quartz engine. Kurt Klaus, the engineer who devised IWC’s Da Vinci Perpetual Calendar and Il Destriero Scafusia, took part in the job. The unprecedented concentric stack of functions demanded precise work even with battery drive. LVMH’s spending on Louis Vuitton Horlogerie since that period gives the brand full control of movement production through its Fabrique du Temps site.
Aulenti, who turned the Gare d’Orsay into the Musée d’Orsay, used building logic on the watch. The absence of normal lugs let the crown sit dead center at twelve o’clock while the strap threaded through or behind the case. Mondrian style color blocks on the dial split the five overlapping hands and kept the dense display legible.
The Monterey II arrived in 1999 with fewer functions. It removed world time and moon phase but kept time, date and alarm. It used ceramic cases in black or green, several years before Chanel released the J12 ceramic watch. The green ceramic variant drew strong demand after Tyler, the Creator wore one in 2023, and resale prices climbed above ten thousand dollars. Louis Vuitton previewed a new LV II at its Fall Winter 2025 show in Gare du Nord, with models wearing the pieces as pendants and over jacket sleeves. The 188 piece gold Monterey release points to a full production run for the LV II.
