L’Epée 1839 Makes their LVMH Watch Week Debut with a Clever New Watch Box

When I was in middle school, my Saturday afternoons were my own. My younger brother played travel soccer, my dad was his coach, and my mom rarely missed a game, so just about every weekend in the Fall and Spring, I had the house to myself for a few hours. One of my favorite things to do during these reprieves from my family was to go up to my dad’s attic office, open up his watch box — a brown leather box that held five watches — and marvel at what I found inside. Something about that brown leather box communicated with perfect clarity that anything found inside it was to be treasured.

That experience is probably no small part of why I love watches today, and a part of me is always looking to recapture the wonder I felt sneaking into my dad’s office and opening up his watch box. These days, it’s a harder experience to find, and I generally think a lot less about watch boxes — most of my watches either sit out on a felt pad on my desk or live in a set of retrofitted metal drawers from IKEA. Still, every so often, someone goes the extra mile and makes a watch box that’s hard to ignore. With their new acrylic Watch Box, L’Epée 1839 has done just that.

If you know of L’Epée 1839, it’s probably from their clocks. And they’ve made some incredible clocks over the years; from very traditional carriage clocks to their collaborative pieces made with MB&F (the Destination Moon is a personal favorite), L’Epée 1839 has consistently been a leader in Swiss clockmaking for the better part of two centuries. But to focus exclusively on their clocks is to only see a part of L’Epée 1839. In their long history, the manufacture has created marvelous music boxes, built mechanical components for watchmakers, and built a host of mechanical wonders. Now, they’ve built an eye-catching new watch box, their first new product since their acquisition by LVMH was announced in June of last year.

Fundamentally, the L’Epée 1839 Watch Box is what it says on the tin — that being a box that holds a watch — but in practice, it’s more like a pedestal meant to celebrate whatever watch is lucky enough to be stored in a $12,000 watch box. Pressing a button on the front of the box sets the box in motion, opening the case’s lid and raising the watch into prime position for admiration or access. Closing the lid resets the mechanism, effectively winding it, so the box will always be ready to spring into action when called upon.

Now, am I advocating for anyone to go out and pick up a watch box that cost more than my first car? Probably not, but I am glad to see such a wild swing from L’Epée 1839 — clearly they’ve picked up a few moves from Max Büsser over the years — especially under their new ownership. The Watch Box is a clear sign that L’Epée 1839 under LVMH isn’t going to stop swinging for the fences. On the contrary, this is yet another sign of the conglomerate’s continued commitment to creating genuinely interesting statements of horology in whatever form they may come. L’Epée 1839

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A native New Englander now based in Philadelphia, Griffin has been a passionate watch enthusiast since the age of 13, when he was given a 1947 Hamilton Norman as a birthday gift by his godfather. Well over a decade later, Griffin continues to marvel and obsess about all things watches, while also cultivating lifelong love affairs with music, film, photography, cooking, and making.
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