Louis Erard x Wire Art – FIL d’OR Edition

 

Louis Erard – FIL d’OR Louis Erard x Wire Art series Hand Guilloché and Wood Marquetry Dial Edition 2025

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When microelectronic precision becomes a form of art. Louis Erard keeps doing what it does best: shining a light on talent, artisans, craft and bold ideas. Introducing Fil d’Or. A collaboration with Sylvie Villa & Mark Miehlbradt, founders of Wire Art. Engineers by training. Artists by conviction. Their machines once wired the digital world. Now they wire time. This isn’t just decoration. It’s a new artistic craft. Fil d’Or is a thread of innovation, soldered to craftsmanship.

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Like every Louis Erard collaboration, this one began with an encounter with Sylvie & Mark, drawn together by a golden thread and wired into a bold idea: turning a machine built for chip tech into a tool for gold micro-sculpture. We challenged them not to keep it exclusive but to make it accessible. A simple shape, a cube. A signature element already present in our artistic craft timepieces through hand guilloché and wood marquetry. The result? A trompe-l’oeil illusion in pure gold. But contrary to the name of that artistic technique, these models are all about truth. We show everything, the process, the tools, the people… That’s how we work, we tell it like it is.” Manuel Emch

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The golden thread

The dial isn’t printed, it’s wired. Woven with pure 24K gold thread, just 25 microns thick, three times thinner than a human hair. The technique? Patented, precise, obsessive and borrowed from microelectronics. The machine? Designed to bond microcircuits. Now rewired, repurposed, reborn as a tool of art. A gold thread bonding machine. 

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The design? The Louis Erard cube, a chevron motif that creates a trompe-l’oeil illusion. The process? From sketch to vector code, from lacquered brass to sculpted gold. The result? A living dial, where light unveils unexpected facets and a depth that isn’t really there. The artisans? Sylvie Villa & Mark Miehlbradt, founders of Wire Art Switzerland.

A cube story

Fil d’Or joins the Noirmont Métiers d’Art collection, housed in a 39 mm stainless steel case. Its design, built from anachronistic cubes, nods to the 3D checkerboard of the hand-guilloché dial (2021) and the miniature wood marquetry (2023). 

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It stands as a bold reminder of Louis Erard’s mission: showcasing rare craftsmanship, making it accessible without compromising its worth. Louis Erard has always believed in accessible excellence. Fil d’or is no exception.

Threads and a dial

Let’s call it what it is: micro-soldering, micromechanical embroidery, goldwork on lacquer. On a deep black lacquered dial, 2,320 gold threads create the cube pattern, while 3,660 solder points define the chapter ring, the hour-markers and highlight certain edges. 

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Each wire pulled, placed and soldered one by one, under binocular high-precision control. One wire every three seconds. 45 minutes of extreme meticulous care. No shortcuts!

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The baseplate is laser-engraved with thousands of micro cavities, then filled with gold through electroplating. Each thread, each solder point, is placed according to a 2D digital design. Height is adjusted and calibrated to the nearest micron. Pressure, temperature, welding time, nothing is left to chance. The machine executes. The human eye commands. The encounter of two intelligences. Technical reliability. Aesthetic perfection. 

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Each thread starts at a laser-etched anchor point, crosses the dial along a precisely calculated path and ends in another gold-lined cavity. Every contact is micro-soldered, using a reprogrammed bonding machine. It’s gold embroidery at the micromechanical level. Threads and bumps form a motif inspired by the isometric cube, somewhere between optical illusion and miniature sculpture. 

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The dial comes to life on the wrist, playing with light, tricking the eye. But the gold doesn’t lie: it’s 24K pure. Why that choice? Because only unalloyed gold is soft and ductile enough for such precision, while still retaining its shape once work-hardened. Each dial is made by Wire Art Switzerland, in Sainte-Croix, where Swiss micromechanics was born. 

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Such a dial deserved new hands: rhodium-plated, satin-brushed on top, diamond-polished angles, sword-shaped and the signature Louis Erard strap in beige leather. In total: 229,680 gold threads woven into 99 limited-edition timepieces. 

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We’re engineers by training, artisans by choice. Our machines were originally built to bond microchips; now, they embroider gold. Thread by thread. Dial by dial. From the very beginning, our collaboration with Louis Erard was open, honest and deeply collaborative. They didn’t just want a dial, they wanted to understand, to participate, to be part of the process. They set constraints that pushed us further and above all, we worked as equals. Being recognized not just as suppliers, but as partners, as artisans, that changes everything. It gives meaning to the years spent in the shadows. And it brings our know-how, our machines and our mission into the light.” Mark Miehlbradt & Sylvie Villa. Wire Art Switzerland. 

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TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS   

Collection:  FIL d’OR

🤝 COLLABORATIONS:

 Model:  Fil d'Or Louis Erard x Wire Art Edition

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Reference: 34248AA52.BVA158

Case
    Material: Polished stainless steel
    Diameter: 39 mm
    Thickness: 12.82 mm
    Lug-to-lug: 45.9 mm
    Domed sapphire crystal with anti-reflective treatment on both sides
    Movement visible through the transparent crystal caseback
    Signature fir tree crown
    Caseback engraved with “WIRE ART EDITION 1 of 99”
    Water-resistant up to a pressure of 5 bars (50 m / 165 ft)
Dial
    Black lacquer base.
    Hour-markers and chapter ring made of 24K gold soldered points.
    The geometric cube pattern is also made with 24K soldered gold wire.
    Hands: Rhodium-plated, satin-brushed on top, diamond-polished angles, sword-shaped.
Movement
    Automatic, Sellita SW261-1 caliber, 2 hands
    Diameter: 11½ lignes, Ø 25.6 mm
    Height: 5.6 mm
    Number of jewels: 31
    Frequency: 28'800 vph (4 Hz)
    Power reserve of pprox. 38 hours
    Carefully decorated specially openworked rotor with black lacquered Louis Erard symbol
Functions/Indications
    Hours, minutes
    Central hour and minutes hands
Strap
    Beige grained calf leather with tone-on-tone stitching, black calf leather lining, polished stainless steel pin buckle, quick-release spring bars for easy strap change.
    Dimensions: width 20/18mm, length 80/115 mm

🔰 Edition of ✅only 99 pieces
🔴 Price:  Recommended retail price, excluding tax 4 500 CHF💰  

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Press release - 2025

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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 
Cristina Saiu, Digital Marketing Executive
+41 32 957 65 34, Cristina.Saiu@louiserard.com

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