Not all images were able to load for printing. Please close the print window and try again. The Louis Erard Excellence Petite Seconde Terracotta (Live Pics & Price)
Louis Erard’s classic watch returns with an attractive salmon dial.
Based in the Le Noirmont in the Swiss Jura, Louis Erard specialises in making classics accessible. As explained recently by Manuel Emch, the brand’s strategy is to “offer what high-end watchmaking can provide at the most affordable price“. Since its recent change of strategy, the brand has shown quite a jump in creativity, with collaborations – think Silberstein or Vianney Halter – as well as rather striking dial designs. Louis Erard’s first release for 2022 is a slightly more classic take on the brand’s codes, but nevertheless an appealing one. Meet the Excellence Petite Seconde Terracotta, the brand’s dress watch with a salmon-coloured dial.
Unconventional and classic at the same time, salmon dial watches truly stand apart. Indeed, dress watches rarely venture beyond white, silver, black, or blue. But salmon dials are truly stylish. They add a degree of elegance with a twist while remaining understated. Often reserved for limited or special editions, they are enjoying increasing popularity recently.
Louis Erard’s latest take on the genre is the elegant Excellence Petite Seconde Terracotta, which we’ve already seen with a silver-coloured dial. With warm earthen tones, its nicely executed dial is composed on multiple levels and with different finishes which creates a pleasing sense of depth. The small seconds display is snailed and slightly recessed. The transfers on the dial are paired with signature fir tree hands treated in anthracite grey and polished.
Taking a look at the polished steel case, the look is familiar… but there is a twist! Besides the 42mm version (the watch we were able to shoot), the Louis Erard Excellence Petite Seconde now also comes in a 39mm version, making it more elegant and more compact on the wrist. The classic design opts for the roundness of pocket watches. The sapphire crystal protrudes slightly from the case to bring character. The water-resistance is 50m.
Inside the Excellence Petite Seconde Terracotta is the automatic Sellita SW261-1, basically a Sellita SW-200 with a small seconds indication – with a distance from the center of 7.6mm compared to 6.4mm for the SW260-1, thus ensuring a more balanced display for a watch that size. As part of the ubiquitous, tried-and-tested SW-200 family (Sellita’s version of the ETA-2824), the movement is 25.60mm in diameter. It ticks at 4Hz with 38 hours of running time when fully wound. There is a stop-seconds mechanism. The movement is visible via the exhibition caseback. The finishing is elaboré grade and its rotor is openworked with the Louis Erard logo.
The Louis Erard Excellence Petite Seconde Terracotta is presented on a dark brown Baranil calf leather with beige stitching and attached to the case thanks to quick-release spring bars, enabling the strap to be changed quickly without a tool. The pin buckle is in polished steel.
Availability & Price
The price for the Excellence Petite Seconde Terracotta will be CHF 1,950. Louis Erard mentions that the production will be limited to approximately 100 pieces per year by reference (39mm or 42mm). For more information, please visit www.louiserard.com
5 responses
And I quote, “The date is with quick setting…” What date? Do you take the time to even look at the watches you’re reviewing? Do you read your own copy? Please…. Then, you go on to you say the movement is a Sellita SW 261-1, while further down in the description of the movement, you list it as a Sellita SW 266-1. So, which is it? And what is the difference between them, if there is a difference? Or, should we just be reading your copy as a piece of fiction?
So, now you’ve changed the movement model number in the description section at the end of the article to match the number (SW 261-1) in the body of the article. However, you made the wrong switch, as the correct movement number is SW 266-1.
We have checked with the brand who confirmed the correct movement number is 261-1.
The website says “Sellita SW261-1”
Thank you for the correction. How bizarre. When I checked with the website before, it had SW266-1. As you’ve noted, it now reads as SW261-1.