The New Louis Erard Excellence Petite Seconde Guilloché

Louis Erard continues its path onwards and upwards with yet another artistic iteration of its Excellence Petite Seconde. A flagship model at Louis Erard since 2020, this model is an attractive dress watch with a small seconds counter available in 39mm and 42mm cases. The uncluttered dial of the Petite Second has been treated to different materials, colours and finishes, including light-hearted collaborations with seconde/seconde and more classical high-end editions with Grand Feu enamel dials. The latest duet flaunt elaborate, eye-catching dials with different textures inspired by the art of guillochage.

While Louis Erard has produced handmade guilloché dials in the past, like the stunning Excellence Guilloché Main Limited Edition and the follow-up Excellence Guillloché Main, the guilloché-like textures on the dials of these new models are not handmade with a lathe or a rose engine, they are stamped. While Louis Erard’s mission has always been to offer luxury haute horlogerie finishings at competitive prices, obtaining a handcrafted guilloché dial for under CHF 2,500 would be nigh impossible.

That being said, the dials of the new Excellence Petite Seconde are lavishly decorated with different textures that emulate the intricate and repetitive patterns of guilloché to an impressive level. The hypnotic pattern dominating the centre of the dial features stylised waves that catch the light and add volume. Intersecting the central disc is the small seconds counter decorated with a classic and very elegant panier (basketweave) motif that is picked up again on the chapter ring bearing the applied silver-coloured Arabic hour numerals and indices. Moving to the periphery of the dial is a railway-style minutes track with a brushed finish and white markings and numerals. This brushed texture and white markings are also used to frame the small seconds counter.

As you can see from our photos, the smaller 39mm model flaunts a two-tone grey and blue dial, while the larger 42mm has a monochrome grey and black dial. However, the latter is not static at all and plays with different intensities of grey to produce dynamic contrasts. Louis Erard’s signature fir tree hands for the hours, minutes and seconds complete the picture.

The 50m water-resistant and polished stainless steel case has a domed sapphire crystal over the dial and a transparent caseback. Both models are powered by an automatic elaboré grade Sellita SW261-1 with an openworked rotor and LE logo. As an offspring of the tried-and-tested SW-200 family (Sellita’s version of the ETA-2824), the movement has a frequency of 28,800 vibrations/hour or 4Hz, a moderate power reserve of 38 hours when fully wound, and it features a stop-seconds mechanism.

Availability & Price

The attractive Louis Erard Excellence Petite Seconde Guilloché 42mm and 39mm come on black grained calfskin straps with a polished steel buckle and spring bars to facilitate strap changes. The watches join the regular collection and retail for CHF 2,300. For more information, please visit louiserard.com.