With the overwhelming increase in smartwatch sales over the past few years, traditional luxury watch brands are increasingly turning to this tech market segment to secure a foothold in a new type of luxury consumer. Louis Vuitton was one of the first non-tech brands to enter the space in 2017, and as its first release of 2022, the luxury watch giant will unveil its third generation smartwatch design. This new iteration thoroughly refreshes the brand’s cornerstone Tambour case design, features a captivating wraparound LED display, and brings a heart rate monitor to the series for the first time. The new Louis Vuitton Tambour Horizon Light Up offers the brand’s most complete smartwatch experience to date, combining an impressive suite of features with a bold Louis Vuitton design sensibility.
With a large stainless steel case measuring 44mm wide and 13.2mm thick, the Louis Vuitton Tambour Horizon Light-Up puts a dramatic twist on the brand’s Tambour formula. The overall shape borrows from the rest of the Tambour series with its rounded, tapered mid-case, inspired by a Japanese drum, and the line’s bold pronged lugs. But what really sets the Tambour Horizon Light-Up apart is its striking wrap-around sapphire crystal. Rather than a traditional bezel, the crystal itself extends around the side of the case in an uninterrupted, flowing line. As well as adding a clean, monocoque look to the design, this three-dimensional crystal allows the Tambour Horizon Light-Up’s display to wrap around the profile of the case, similar to how modern mobile phones do. Louis Vuitton offers the case in three different finishes: polished stainless steel, warm matte brown PVD, and a two-tone model in matte black PVD and matte blasted titanium. Each of these iterations brings its own personality to the Tambour design, with the polished stainless steel model giving the watch a more traditional character in the images, as opposed to the luxurious and ultra-modern look of the matte brown PVD model. However, the black and titanium version is by far the sportiest of the three, proving to be the most versatile for everyday use. The Tambour Horizon Light Up is also the first Louis Vuitton smartwatch to integrate pushers into the design, with the nearly flush oval pushers blending smoothly into the overall shape. The pusher at 2 o’clock offers a quick shortcut to switch between face options and configurations, while the pusher at 4 o’clock offers a one-touch shortcut to selected applications. The Tambour Horizon Light Up’s caseback is the first in the series to feature a heart rate monitor, adding to the existing array of sensors that include a microphone, accelerometer, gyroscope, and ambient light sensor, and adding a new fitness-related feature to the lineup. Louis Vuitton rates the watch’s water resistance at a basic 30 meters.
The Louis Vuitton Tambour Horizon Light-Up’s AMOLED touchscreen dial offers a wide range of customization options and features, allowing each individual to tailor their watch to their own tastes. The base dial design is swappable between eight different layouts, each of which showcases classic Louis Vuitton visual cues such as the brand’s trademark Monogram pattern, and each of the eight designs can be further customized with 11 vibrant gradient color palettes. From there, wearers can swap between four animation levels – Blossom, Explorer, Submarine, and Saber – to conserve battery life and further customize the experience to match the wearer’s mood. The brand aims to add more dial colorways and layouts over time, with future updates planned to coincide with seasonal changes, collaborations and collection releases with Louis Vuitton, and major holidays. By switching between the main timekeeping dial and two dedicated activity dials, the Tambour Horizon Light-Up puts the most useful features within easy reach with a single swipe. First up is “My Day.” It’s a dial display that groups together appointments, weather, steps, heart rate, and air quality information, while swiping in the opposite direction gives access to a unique “My Travel” dial that organizes your trip plans, boarding passes, and custom-curated travel guides for 30 destinations around the world. Notifications and a control panel with music, contactless payments, and timekeeping complications can also be accessed by swiping down or up. But the most visually striking element in the image is the notification ring. When a new notification is received, a wraparound display on the side of the case lights up with Louis Vuitton’s monogram pattern in a range of customizable colors, which should immediately grab the wearer’s attention when needed. Louis Vuitton claims that this streamlined new operating system is the first third-party system to achieve Apple’s “Made for iPhone” certification, but also offers compatibility with Android and HarmonyOS systems.
Louis Vuitton has equipped the Tambour Horizon Light-up with a Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 4100 microprocessor. This roughly two-year-old chipset comes with 1 gigabyte of RAM and 8 gigabytes of flash memory, and also offers connectivity via Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.2, and NFC. Battery life is estimated at one day on average, but will vary depending on usage. In true Louis Vuitton style, the Tambour Horizon Light-up is available with a variety of strap options. A quick-release strap-change system allows for easy swapping of a range of straps, including monogrammed white, black, pale pink, and deep coffee brown leather strap options at launch, as well as sporty textured black or red rubber strap options.
With a sleek, premium look, solid functionality, and extensive customization options, the Louis Vuitton Tambour Horizon Light Up marks a major step forward for the brand’s smartwatch offering in an increasingly competitive niche market. The Louis Vuitton Tambour Horizon Light Up is available now from authorized retailers. At the time of writing, the Louis Vuitton Tambour Horizon Light Up has an MSRP starting at $3,450. For more information, please visit the brand’s website.
