With a stunning guilloché façade, the Excellence Guilloché Main II watch by Louis Erard is a stand out timepiece, which offers its wearer contemporary artisan aesthetics and the assurance of exclusivity. Created in collaboration with the prestigious Fehr & Cie dial atelier, this 99 piece edition displays impressive craftsmanship throughout, and has the added advantage of an élaboré grade self-winding calibre.

The watch carries a rounded stainless steel case of 42mm diameter and 12.25mm height. The profile of the casing has been enhanced with a polished finish, and its neatly tucked in crown, curving lugs and trim bezel offer excellent proportions. Beneath a gently domed sapphire crystal, the stellar feature of the watch, its guilloché dial, is immediately mesmerising.

Putting a wonderfully modern spin on a traditional métiers d’art technique, the dial is highly modernistic and at a glance it stirs the aesthetic senses. Featuring matte black varnish upon a rhodium-plated dial plate, a generous pyramid motif at the centre dominates. Within its form, the pattern is repeated seemingly endlessly, creating an astounding three dimensional trompe l’oeil. In contrast to the painstakingly precise straight lines of the central motif, a circular decoration worked on the outer dial frames the pyramid while also forming a congenial accord with the rounded form of the watchcase. Demanding of several hours of work, each dial is individually crafted by the guillocheuse, using a manual guilloché rose engine lathe. Such an extraordinary surface is requiring of no further embellishment, therefore Louis Erard have ensured that the indications are reduced to their essentia, and consist only of a minimalist minutes track, elegant blued steel fir-shaped hour and minutes hands and the title of the model in script, which is rendered at the six o’clock location.

Inside, and viewable through the sapphire crystal exhibition caseback, a modified Sellita SW261-1 self-winding movement features a semi-skeletonised Louis Erard oscillating weight, and it boasts a power reserve of thirty-eight hours, beating at a brisk 28’800 vib/h.

An excellent example of avant-garde craftsmanship, the Louis Erard Excellence Guilloché Main II watch comes presented on a black grained calfskin leather strap lined with blue grained calfskin, and secured with a steel pin buckle. The edition is a strictly limited release of 99 pieces.