Whereas in Courchevel, France attending a launch of latest high-watchmaking merchandise from Louis Vuitton, I sat down with the corporate’s Watch Director to debate the first-ever LV Watch Prize marketing campaign (initially debuted on aBlogtoWatch right here with a Jean Arnault interview). The LV Watch Prize is a brand new initiative from Louis Vuitton that seeks to empower a brand new era of creative watchmakers and horologically inclined inventive minds. Jean Arnault revealed that Louis Vuitton intends to award the prize each different 12 months (so, the following one shall be in 2025) and that this isn’t a one-time marketing campaign. Arnault explains that the general aim of the LV Watch Prize is to make use of Louis Vuitton’s heft to advertise voices and personalities that may in any other case stay extraordinarily area of interest. Louis Vuitton needs to supply significant mentorship and help to assist within the creation of emotionally transferring timepiece creations.
Functions have been open for just some days (February 22, 2023, was the launch), and the Louis Vuitton Watch Prize has already acquired almost 600 purposes, demonstrating world curiosity. As a result of the prize is open-ended by way of eligibility, I requested Mr. Arnault for extra particulars about who ought to apply, however extra importantly, what he’s hoping to seek out in candidates. He was fast to remind me that he and his workforce might have hopes for ought to apply, however it’s finally as much as the LV Watch Prize judges (of which I’m one) to find out each the pool of finalists and the eventual winner. There is no such thing as a particular design, worth degree, mechanical or digital know-how, or origin that’s required to use for the LV Watch Prize. What’s necessary, once more, is originality, persona, and the power to execute concepts in a bodily type.
Mr. Arnault himself is a fan of conventional watchmaking craft, in addition to right now’s broad spectrum of impartial watchmakers. He aspires to help artisans who dream of making timepieces the place emotion and artwork take middle stage, with watchmaking is the medium. He acknowledges that it may be a really difficult job for even a talented watchmaker to deliver a product to market and that non-technical designers with in any other case good concepts might by no means in any other case have an opportunity. For that motive, the crux of the LV Watch Prize isn’t a money reward (although the winner will obtain 150,000 Euros as a part of their winnings), however somewhat hands-on assist from Louis Vuitton and, extra immediately, from the expertise at Louis Vuitton’s esteemed La Fabrique de Temps watchmaking facility in Geneva, Switzerland. The particulars of the “mentorship” (as Louis Vuitton refers to it) are difficult to explain as a result of every winner can have a unique set of wants. Typically, Jean Arnault assures candidates that winners can have unbelievable entry to assist wherever it might be wanted, from learn how to market their merchandise to the general public to the place to buy a CNC milling machine.
Louis Vuitton has expertise with such initiatives, although the LV Watch Prize is model new. For years, the LVMH Prize has existed to draw the eye of the world’s greatest new expertise in vogue. One of many attention-grabbing issues Lous Vuitton discovered from previous prizes is that the most effective candidates are those that show the mixture of originality, dedication, and follow-through. What Louis Vuitton shouldn’t be in search of are folks with mere concepts on paper. The LV Watch Prize needs to help precise watches that folks will finally be capable of buy, and extra so needs to help tasks that may change into a actuality. One particular requirement of the LV Watch Prize is that candidates have a “commercialized” watch by the Could 30, 2023, LV Watch Prize utility deadline. This time period is likely to be a bit complicated as a result of it doesn’t imply that the applicant should be really promoting watches, however somewhat {that a} working, remaining bodily product has been created and that the idea has confirmed industrial feasibility. Extra so, Arnault explains that the LV Watch Prize is about folks. The corporate needs to help candidates with not solely the dedication to deliver their creations to life but in addition the follow-through to make these merchandise a actuality. Louis Vuitton may also help in very impactful methods, however it all begins with the need of the candidates themselves.
Jean Arnault says that just like LVMH’s long-term relationships with the LVMH Prize winners, he hopes to keep up contact with LV Watch Prize finalists and winners for the long run. He even describes conditions the place earlier candidates who didn’t win might strive once more for subsequent prizes after they have higher refined their ideas and creations. Louis Vuitton, on the whole, sees itself as a “hub for tradition,” and likewise, Louis Vuitton Watches can function a hub for watchmaking tradition. That features not solely the perpetuation of conventional artisanship, but in addition the incorporation of contemporary concepts, aesthetics, advertising and marketing methods, and, after all, personalities. Louis Vuitton doesn’t all the time (and even typically) must tie these cultural parts into the model’s merchandise themselves, however somewhat the expertise of watching or collaborating with Louis Vuitton ought to be a curated lens into related tradition. In different phrases, irrespective of the pattern, whether it is cool, Louis Vuitton needs to share it with you. That’s a lovely and daring idea in a world the place luxurious is more and more unique.
As somebody with a self-professed “ardour” for watchmaking and modern wristwatch tradition, Jean Arnault has one other attention-grabbing aim for the LV Watch Prize. The LV Watch Prize affords Jean Arnault a singular alternative to help the business he likes to create new issues whereas sustaining his place because the chief of an necessary model’s watchmaking phase. A lot of right now’s greatest watch model managers are certainly such “class fans.” Conventional company mentality may counsel that managers want to stay hyper-focused on their niches, however in actuality, it takes a severe timepiece fanatic to successfully pilot any main watchmaker right now. Even at a younger age, Jean Arnault is demonstrating an actual dedication to the horological house, and the impression of the LV Watch Prize over years will in all probability have an important impression on his legacy.
Louis Vuitton, a self-described “home of tradition,” has absolutely dedicated itself to the LV Watch Prize and its collection of candidates and eventual winners. This initiative is one in all many that can enable Louis Vuitton to carry a place of influential energy relating to shaping the fashionable watch business, above and past its laudable assortment of timepieces. The novelty of the LV Watch Prize implies that followers and business colleagues, alike, aren’t fairly positive what to make of the eventual outcomes, and actually that’s a part of the enjoyable. This kind of contemporary and inclusive considering will go a great distance towards shaping the tone of the watch business’s future. For now, all eyes are on the 2023 LV Watch Prize, which is accepting purposes till Could 30, 2023. Study extra in regards to the LV Watch Prize, and apply right here.
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