Why LVMH is buying the Swiss clock manufacturer L’Épée 1839

Planes, spaceships, rockets, racing cars, robots, spiders and even the Winchester rifle… L’Épée 1839, of which the LVMH group announced on June 25 the acquisition of Swiza, the parent company, is the manufacture of the most atypical watchmaking dreams. Founded in 1839 by Auguste L’Épée, in the Besançon region, in France, and based since 2008 in Delémont, in the Swiss Jura, it brings together more than 80 designers, engineers, watchmakers, mechanics and collaborators alongside ‘Arnaud Nicolas, its president and creative director. Its contemporary, handmade clocks are, in a way, watchmaking toys for older children. Luxury objects intended – like officers’ clocks and travel clocks in the past – to add a touch of beauty, originality and complexity to the corner of an office or to a designer living room.

This unique factory, which supplied the Concorde wall clocks, is in fact the undisputed leader in the manufacture of mechanical works of art with extreme complications: perpetual calendars, tourbillons, retrograde hands… These “ohni”, unidentified watchmaking objects , have won over lovers of fine workmanship from all over the world, who find there the same know-how and the same craftsmanship as in their favorite timepieces. Moreover, last year, the 185-year-old house was awarded the mechanical clock prize at the Geneva Watchmaking Grand Prix for its Time Fast II Chrome, a clock in the shape of a racing car from the 1960s.

But why buy this clock factory? “ Several houses in the group had already, separately, called upon L’Épée 1839, with creations acclaimed by their respective clients: Tiffany & Co., with a clock in the shape of a New York taxi; La Fabrique du Temps Louis Vuitton, with a hot air balloonexplains Frédéric Arnault, president and CEO of LVMH’s watch division. This will also soon be the case for TAG Heuer, with a project underway in the automotive world. This manufacture has real know-how in matters of complications, an unrivaled ability to transpose them in three dimensions in creations that are both horological and decorative. »

A New York yellow taxi

Thus, the yellow New York taxi from the 1950s, revisited in turquoise blue for Tiffany & Co, was one of last Christmas’s sales successes in the boutiques of the famous jeweler on Fifth Avenue. A 47 cm long Tiffany Taxi Swiss Made clock powered by two independent movements (one giving the time and having an eight-day power reserve, and the other driving the motor), and offered at €62,000. “In my opinion, it is a unique house, the only one today to be able to adapt so much to the universe of each brand, and to present such development potential.believes Frédéric Arnault.Its success in recent years has truly been exceptional, and the possibilities for collaborations with our different houses are endless. Within the LVMH watchmaking division, L’Épée 1839 will be able to take off and develop, while continuing to work for its current clients.»