Not all images were able to load for printing. Please close the print window and try again. The New Grey Dial Louis Erard x Alain Silberstein Smile Day
Animated with emojis, primary colours and geometric shapes, Alain Silberstein strikes again.
Alain Silberstein and Louis Erard are at it again! One of the brand’s most veteran collaborators, Alain Silberstein has collaborated with Louis Erard since 2019, dialling up the colour of watches with his original design language. Following the Tourbillon Regulator, Silberstein’s latest Smile Day collaboration continues in the wake of earlier three-hand with day and date editions but features a new grey dial colour.
Parisian Alain Silberstein (1950) has always swum against the current. Trained as an interior architect, Silberstein was attracted to watchmaking and presented his first watch in 1987 at the Basel Fair. While fun primary colours and geometrical shapes populate his universe, his design approach is dead serious and rooted in a profound understanding of art and colour theory. Feeding on everything from Gropius and his Bauhaus school of artists, which included Kandinsky, Silberstein explores the connection between shapes and colours, resulting in an unmistakable design language.
Following earlier exponents with khaki and white dials, the latest watch has a contemporary 40mm case with distinctive vertical sidebars and a conical crown with a red lacquered tip. To highlight the architecture of the titanium case, the sidebars and crown are polished, while the bezel and bar lugs are matte.
A trademark Silberstein feature since the 1990s, the day of the week indication is substituted by his Smile Days, emoji faces appearing in the oval-shaped aperture above the rectangular date window at 6 o’clock. In fact, there are seven different faces to choose from to match your mood. The Kandinski-inspired hands mix shapes and colours with a blue arrow for the minutes, a yellow squiggle for the seconds and a red triangle for the hours.
The glossy steel-grey colour chosen for the dial is known as ‘Stahlgrau’. The rounded oval hour markers are light blue, matching the minutes hand. Continuing the grey palette, the watch comes with a grey nylon strap with a hook-and-loop fastener for easy adjustment. The watch is powered by a Sellita SW 220-1 élaboré-grade automatic with a special black lacquered rotor and a 38-hour power reserve.
Limited to 178 pieces, the Louis Erard x Alain Silberstein Smile-Day retails for CHF 4,000 (excl. tax). For more information, please consult louiserard.com.
