What is Spin Time? Does it determine whose top wins? Is it from particle physics? Perhaps in some neighborhoods, but not here. Spin Time is an innovate new collection from Louis Vuitton featuring watches with no hour hands. Instead, each of the 12 hour positions is occupied by a rotating cube. At any given hour, eleven of the cubes show a blank face (actually they display a subtle letter “V”) while the cube in the current hour position displays the current hour numerically. The cubes have numbers on 2 sides, so they can display, for example, 1 or 13, 2 or 14, indicating a.m. or p.m.
At 3 p.m. for example, the hour cube located at the 3 o’clock position will display the number 15, while the other 11 cubes are blank. The minutes are displayed as usual, via a minute hand. There is also a standard GMT hand, set by the crown at the 8 o’clock position. Got that?
The Swiss-made movement uses an ETA base, but the rotating cubes were designed by LVMH’s in-house designer at its facility in La Chaux-de-Fonds. The movement is also assembled there. The watch also features Louis Vuitton’s LeVel Up crown stem lifting system which allows the crown to move, increasing comfort on the wrist. The system, inspired by the transfer case on a car, consists of a group of toothed wheels engaged with an internal toothed wheel, controlling winding as well as date and hour adjustments.
The 44mm men’s version in white gold (shown below) is $47,000. The 39.5mm women’s version in white gold with diamonds is $74,500.
