Saturday, September 25, 2021

Louis Erard – Exceptional Le Regulateur Louis Erard x Atelier OÏ Edition

  

Louis ErardExceptional Le Régulateur Louis Erard x Atelier Limited Edition 2021

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Louis Erard marks a new stage in the accessible creation watch, with a fresh look at all the crafts that make up watchmaking. For this new collaboration, Louis Erard turns to architecture and design with atelier oï, a regional company that has been shining internationally for 30 years, and a radiant watch, too.

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How to materialise space and time? How to materialise the contemporary spirit of the watch when connected technology has disconnected watchmaking from its primary necessity: telling the time?

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Louis Erard invited atelier oï to look into the question and the answer is a new original dial, the third part of the series of collaborations already co-signed by Alain Silberstein and Vianney Halter.  

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Once more based on the emblematic model of the Maison: the regulator. Once again with the desire to bring together key players in traditional watchmaking culture. And again with the desire to bring together key players in Swiss know-how: atelier oï and Louis Erard are both regional companies of international stature.

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Breaking new ground, the collaboration leaves the strict field of watchmaking, since atelier oï works in the fields of architecture and design. The invitation did not come about by accident, however. The workshop, based in La Neuveville, a satellite town of Neuchâtel, has been close to the watchmaking industry since its creation precisely thirty years ago and the watchmaking world has played a major part in the development of the company. Going back as far as the 1990s, there has also been a warm relationship between atelier oï and Louis Erard, as illustrated by the current manager Manuel Emch, who began his career with an internship at atelier oï and who has collaborated with it ever since.

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In three decades, atelier oï has become a brand in itself, reputed around the world, rewarded with more than thirty distinctions which illustrate its uniqueness. Moreover, the name, oï, is borrowed from the Russian Troika, a word that symbolises the energy generated by a trio, in this case, Aurel Aebi, Armand Louis and Patrick Reymond, the three co-founders.

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Talents, an anniversary, connections, Le Régulateur Louis Erard, the planets were therefore aligned for this collaboration to emerge.

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The objective, for Louis Erard, is once again to break down barriers in the world and make accessible what is often reserved for specialist clientele. With this added challenge of plunging without a net into contemporary creation, with all that entails of references, reflections, diversions and shocks.

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Atelier oï proceeded in a basic way: "To radiate from the centre outwards." Taking care to reduce the technical vocabulary as much as possible, reminiscent of the shape of a sundial. The result is a surface engraved with asymmetrical rays, the light of which reveals reflections and contrasts - echoing the passion of the members of atelier oï for the material and the play of light. The art of engraving being expressed here in its essence: drawn lines. These lines create a space, to which the hands add the dimension of time.

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Le Régulateur has naturally imposed its own rhythm: the hands (hour, minute, second) become centres from which rays emerge, generating visual kinetics that each movement of the wrist animates, giving the two-dimensional dial the depth of a radiant architecture. A pure work of art, which nothing can break, not even the Louis Erard logo.

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Reading the time comes out somewhat dematerialised - you have to mentally reconstruct the puzzle of hour angles - but all the links are not broken: the minute-circle still appears around the edge of the dial, with a more pronounced line every five minutes and exactly sixty segments. A nod from atelier oï to the smartphone generation: “Today, the object watch has another meaning." 

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Le Régulateur Louis Erard x atelier oï. Retail price CHF 3,500. Limited edition of 178 pieces — symbol number which means that together we are always stronger. Other collaborations to follow.

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ABOUT VIANNEY HALTER

Vianney Halter was born in 1963 on the outskirts of Paris, the son of an engine driver on the French railways. He remembers being fascinated by the old machines and mechanical objects that his father brought home. Perhaps this early contact with powerful locomotives, steam engines and other measuring instruments is the reason why he was attracted to technology and mechanics.

At 14 years of age, Vianney Halter made the decision to broaden his interest in mechanics, and took the train to the capital to enrol at the École Horlogère de Paris (Paris Watchmaking School). He qualified in 1980 and spent his first ten years in the profession restoring antique watches and clocks, experience which gave him in-depth knowledge of the art of watchmaking.
 

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Self-employed since 1984, he then went on to create a variety of timepieces for well-known manufacturers including Harry Winston, Breguet, and Audemars Piguet. He has also invented and developed his own collection of wristwatches since 1998.

His designs have been regarded as avant-garde pieces and are considered to have instigated a new shift in the watchmaking world. Vianney Halter makes unusual watches in the traditional method of the master watchmakers of the past, while using singular aesthetics, his own technical patents and unique constructions. All of this is illustrated in his first model, the “Antiqua”, a perpetual calendar presented in 1998. This watch was instantly regarded as a "relic of the future", reinforcing Halter's creativity and allowing him to enter the Académie Horlogère des Créateurs Indépendants (AHCI).

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His years as an independent watchmaker continuing the art of watchmaking and his contribution to the modern horological landscape have already earned him nine awards. He has created around ten models of wristwatches, but the high level of workmanship they demand means their production is confidential. Indeed, under 500 pieces created by Vianney Halter have been produced to this day.

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ABOUT LOUIS ERARD


Based in the Jura mountains, the birthplace of watchmaking, Louis Erard embodies the values of Swiss mechanics, the tradition that keeps its promises. Combining luxury, timelessness and elegance, this independent brand is renowned for its mechanical watches and, in particular, its iconic regulators. A collection on which the brand, founded by Mr. Louis Erard in 1929, built its reputation.

Continuing the work of its founder and honouring watchmaking tradition, the Maison is reinterpreting the codes in a contemporary language. Louis Erard is now writing the next chapter of the brand’s story. Inspired by high-end watchmaking, the brand is strengthening its collection of mechanical timepieces with complications.


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ABOUT ATELIER OÏ
Derived from the Russian word "troika", a team of three, atelier oï was founded in 1991 in La Neuveville, Switzerland, by Aurel Aebi, Armand Louis
and Patrick Reymond. With a team spirit and an intimate relationship with the material, atelier oï has been working for 30 years to dissolve barriers
between genres and promote transdisciplinary creativity.
Born from an intuitive and emotional affinity between the three founders, atelier oï works in the fields of architecture, interior architecture, product
design and scenography, with a collaboration between disciplines, creating holistic solutions from object to space. The co-founders have a strong
interest in nature and natural materials, and their expertise in transforming these allows them to carry out both emotional and artisanal projects.
The three founders are architects, designers and boat builders, all members of the Federation of Swiss Architects FAS and headed the Swiss
Design Awards as President of the Federal Design Commission between 2008 and 2016. Trained at the school of architecture funded by Alberto
Sartoris in Switzerland, the founders also received honorary doctorates from this institution.
atelier oï encourages experimentation and cultural exchange, through their work with clients and their own initiatives, and as visiting professors in
a number of leading institutions, including ETH Zurich, ECAL Renens, the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts and the Kuwasawa Design School in
Tokyo.
The combination of local roots and international know-how has enabled atelier oï to design objects for a wide variety of national and international
clients, including Artemide, B&B Italia, Bulgari, Foscarini, Louis Vuitton, Nespresso, Pringle of Scotland, Rimowa, USM and WonderGlass. atelier
oï has also organised monographic exhibitions of its work in Zurich, São Paulo and Tokyo. atelier oï is also working on a humanitarian project for
Smiling Gecko in Cambodia.
atelier oï's projects have been recognised globally and have won some of the most prestigious awards including multiple IF Design Awards,
Europan 3 Award, European Museum of the Year Award, Red Dot Award and the product of the year award from Architectural Record.

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TECHNICAL DETAILS

Collection: Exceptional

Model: Le Régulateur Louis Erard x  Atelier Edition

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 Ref. 85237AA53.BVA33

Movement
Automatic regulator, Sellita SW266-1 calibre,

11½ ''', Ø25.60 mm, height: 5.60 mm, 31 jewels,
28,800 VpH (4 Hz), élaboré grade movement, meticulously decorated,
special openwork oscillating weight with Louis Erard symbol), approx.
38 hours of power reserve
Functions
HMS
Hour hand on counter at 12 o'clock, central minute hand,
second hand on counter at 6 o'clock
Case

Polished stainless steel, Ø42 mm, thickness: 12.25 mm,
3 pieces, domed sapphire crystal with anti-reflective treatment on both sides,
movement visible through the transparent back
Water-resistant up to a pressure of 5 bars (50 m/165 ft),
Vianney Halter signature crenellated crown
Case back engravedLimited Edition 1 of 178
Dial
"Black Or" slate grey, matt and polished, 60 planed lines marking the minutes
Dial designed by atelier oï according to their artistic identity
Hands
Blue baton hands
Strap
“Covey” grey calf nubuck leather with tone-on-tone stitching, polished stainless steel pin buckle, functional catch spring bars enabling the strap to be changed quickly
Dimensions: 22/20mm width, 80/115mm length

Collaboration

Watch developed in association with Vianney Halter in a limited edition of 178 pieces

Recommended retail price: CHF 3,500.00
 

Edition
Limited edition of 178
timepieces

3 YEARS WARRANTY

 
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Press release - 2021
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www.Vianney-Halter.com
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CONTACT:

LOUIS ERARD
Rue de l’Ouest 2
CH–2340 Le Noirmont
Suisse

info@louiserard.com
+41 (0) 32 957 65 30 

Mélanie Kilcher-Berberat, Marketing Manager
Tel. +41 32 957 66 45, Melanie.Berberat @louiserard.com

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