Just in time for Halloween today, Louis Erard’s new La Petite Seconde Louis Horror made in collaboration with seconde/seconde/. This watch was available from October 28, 2022.
Press Release information with commentary in italics.
The new Louis Erard La Petite Seconde Louis Horror x seconde/seconde/
The new Louis Erard La Petite Seconde Louis Horror x seconde/seconde/ is released at a price of CHF 1,975. Limited edition of 178 pieces.
Commentary
Once again Louis Erard injects fun into their watches. In keeping with the Halloween theme, they released another collaboration, this time with a very interesting, provocative, disruptive and even rebellious designer who calls himself by the cryptic name of “seconde/seconde/” (real name Romaric André). He prefers his adjectives more old-fashioned than overused. And his penchant for things of the past seems to run through most of his work. It was his passion for vintage watches that led him to develop the hand swap several years ago.
This collaboration is based on the Louis Erard Petite Seconde, with creative input from seconde/seconde/. The brand name below the logo is changed and the small seconds hand now in the shape of a tombstone.
The watch retains the chic good looks of the other Petite Seconde models, with the touch of “horror”…same Sellita movement, and same non-horror story price below CHF 2k for the 178 piece limited edition.
Release information
Louis Erard is not afraid of anything and proves it by abandoning his Excellence Petite Seconde model to the abuse of the master of appropriation, the Parisian seconde/seconde/, in the middle of Halloween night.
La Petite Seconde Louis Erard — aka Louis “Horror” — x seconde/seconde/. Take yourself too seriously? How awful! This is the second time that the paths of these two independents have crossed. This tongue-in-cheek collaboration gets worse each time: the first coming-together of 2021 led to “Louis Error”; this second collaboration has a hint of a ghost and an even more striking spirit.
Play on words. Mind games. A touch of Grand Guignol. A sweety stolen from the Day of the Dead treat bag. Let’s stop for a second, because the Louis Erard Petite Seconde model has changed in dimension. The skeleton seemed perfect for the ghoulish celebration, but the reference was too horological and too conventional – vade retro satana! — for the iconoclastic designer of seconde/seconde/. It is therefore a pixelated ectoplasm which has been invited to swallow the second hand and which turns now and until the end of time in its dungeon-round sub-dial. A bloody touch has been left on the label, in form and in substance: Erard = Horror.
Everything else is very serious. Because there is nothing more serious in reality than appropriation. Especially when it comes to timepieces signed by Louis Erard. Especially when it comes to torturing its classic Petite Seconde model, one of the three faces of its Excellence triptych. Because under the shroud of terror shines a Swiss watch of the highest craftsmanship: automatic Sellita SW261-1 calibre, 316 L steel case, silver opaline dial with circular satin-finished zone, snailed counter at 6 o’clock with diamond-cut zone, signature fir-tree hands, glossy anthracite indexes.
seconde/seconde/ interventions are themselves deceptive realisations. seconde/seconde/, aka Romaric André, has made his pop appropriations his trademark and under the amusing aspect hides a very real attention to detail and quality of execution.
Louis Erard is therefore continuing his work of opening up fine watchmaking in the little boutique of horrors. Classic in its realisation, but contemporary in its references and in its operating mode – recalling once again the power of sharing and collaboration. Its singular way of making the unique and creative watch accessible, not only in terms of price, also in terms of culture, by making it as popular as possible, in the noble sense of the term.
La Petite Seconde Louis Horror x seconde/seconde/ is produced in a limited edition of 178 pieces — a symbolic number: together we are always stronger, offered at less than 2,000 Swiss francs.
Louis Erard La Petite Seconde Louis Horror x seconde/seconde/ Specifications
Ref. 34238AA61
Limited edition of 178 pieces
Movement
Automatic, Sellita SW261-1 calibre, 3 hands with small seconds at 6 o’clock, 111⁄2”’, Ø25.60 mm, height: 5.60 mm, 31 jewels, 28,800 VpH (4Hz), élaboré grade movement, special openworked oscillating weight with black lacquered Louis Erard symbol, approx. 38 hours of power reserve
Functions
HMS
Central hour and minute hands, second hand at 6 o’clock
Case
Polished stainless steel, Ø39 mm, lug width: 20 mm, lug to lug: 46.48mm, thickness: 12.25 mm, 3 pieces, domed sapphire crystal with anti-reflective treatment on both sides, movement visible through the transparent caseback, water resistant up to a pressure of 5 bars (50 m/165 ft), signature fir tree crown, caseback engraved with “Limited Edition 1 of 178”
Dial
Silver opaline with circular satin-finished zone, snailed counter at 6 o’clock with diamond-cut zone, glossy anthracite indexes, anthracite and red transfers for the mention “Horror”
Hands
Polished anthracite signature fir tree hour and minute hands, second hand: luminescent ghost (green emission) with seconde/seconde/ signature
Strap
Dark black grained calf leather with tone-on-tone attachment points, blue grained calf leather lining, polished stainless steel pin buckle, functional catch spring bars enabling the strap to be changed quickly
Dimensions: 20/18 mm width, 80/115mm length
Collaboration
Watch developed in collaboration with seconde/seconde/ in a limited edition of 178 pieces
