What do Kim Jones, industrial designer Marc Newson, architect Frank Gehry and Maxime Frédéric, pastry chef of the Cheval Blanc Paris hotel, have in common?
They are all passionate about watches and will be among the 45-strong jury of the inaugural Louis Vuitton Watch Prize for Independent Creatives, an international contest that aims to encourage watchmaking innovation.
The new prize, which comes with a 150,000-euro purse and one-year mentorship from La Fabrique du Temps Louis Vuitton, is the brainchild of Jean Arnault, the French luxury house’s director of watches, himself a watch enthusiast of more than a decade who saw the rise of independent watchmaking.
“It really spoke to me and having seen the vintage watch trend go from [being] extremely desirable to being much less desirable today, I don’t want independent watchmaking to follow the same trajectory,” he said, noting that without support such brands risked failing once the hype moved on.
Unveiled in November 2022 and slated to be held on a biennial basis, the competition is open to any watchmaker with an existing design, who has incorporated their brand and sold at least one timepiece ahead of the May 31 application deadline.
The new prize is “about creating a reference point for those newcomers and saying [that] the independent industry is still in and still hot and will always appeal to collectors on the long run,” said Arnault.
Other experts on its jury include specialists like Carole Forestier-Kasapi, movements director of LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton-owned Tag Heuer; artisans such as enamelers Anita Porcher and engraver Dick Steenman; noted master watchmakers such as Enrico Barbasini, Michel Navas, Kari Voutilainen and Rexhep Rexhepi; as well as journalists and collectors.
“We have a very wide panel of people who, in my humble opinion, view a timekeeping creation in different ways,” said Arnault. “This jury represents the watch in general [which] isn’t just a movement, a case, a dial [but] a whole that once assembled [becomes] a good product.”
They will be tasked with whittling down the entries to 20 semifinalists, who will be announced in September. The jury will then nominate five representatives — one for each of the jury categories — who will meet in December 2023 to determine the winner, who will be announced at a ceremony in January 2024 in Paris.
Shortlisting the semifinalists is already shaping up to be a tall order for the 45 jury members: there have been already more than 700 registrations to date via the dedicated louisvuittonwatchprize.com website.
“I had bet on 100 when we opened applications [in January],” said Arnault. “We are truly flabbergasted and these 700 applicants come from around the world.”
Switzerland, France and other usual watchmaking areas are represented, but there are also applicants from Israel, Brazil, India or China, he said. “All at different price points, levels of complications, levels of watchmaking, but all candidates who are serious and there to showcase their timekeeping piece.”
Design, creativity, innovation, craftsmanship and technical complexity are the criteria that jury members will be evaluating in each submitted watch, but Arnault said that the winner would be the watchmaker who “brings something new” — be it an entirely novel way of showing time, a yet-unseen complication or a completely different way of executing existing ways of telling time.
“The independent watchmakers who manage to emerge are all unique creators who bring something completely new and completely distinctive to the industry without being in competition with each other,” said Arnault.
Asked if the winner would be incubated at La Fabrique du Temps Louis Vuitton, in a model similar to the Daniel Roth and Gérald Genta relaunches, Arnault said “the idea is not to absorb the watchmaker, bringing them physically into La Fabrique du Temps and getting them to follow the processes put in place for [Louis Vuitton, Genta or Roth,]” but to tailor mentoring and support to the needs of the watchmaker.
Further editions could see the scope of the watch prize broaden, with a focus on female watchmakers, greater emphasis on the design aspect or even projects still at the concept phase. “The intention is to extend [the prize] to have fewer and fewer entry barriers,” according to Arnault, who pointed out that entry to the watch prize was already free of charge.
While only one watchmaker will take home the top gong, Arnault is adamant about ensuring that semifinalists and the finalists who do not take home the prize “feel valued and happy to be part of the process, and benefit from the experience.”
Not only will jury members be free to later support any candidate but “our idea is to open as many doors as possible for those candidates, with a priority for the winner, of course,” he continued.
“Very successful brands have been created without winning the LVMH Prize [for Young Fashion Designers], by ‘only’ being semifinalists,” Arnault noted. “It shows not only the power of the group, but of these initiatives that kick-start young entrepreneurs who want to launch in any field.”