Louis Erard Partners with Brilliant Earth on the Jeweler’s First Watch Collection

Louis Erard has been making collaborative watches for years. In fact, you can pretty easily point to limited edition collaborations as a venture that has sustained the brand over the last several years, and made them newly relevant to a broad spectrum of enthusiasts and collectors. Their collaborations tend to follow a familiar, tried and true format. For the most part, they work with established, often higher end, independent watchmakers, and graft the design signatures of those watchmakers onto various Louis Erard platforms, most often their Regulator. The list of collaborators at this point is extensive, with names like Chaykin, Kudoke, and Vianney Halter contributing to Louis Erard’s ongoing project. Their latest, though, is a little different. The Solstice Collection, a line unveiled last month with Brilliant Earth, represents a new approach, and takes Louis Erard’s name off the dial entirely. 

Brilliant Earth is a jewelry brand founded in 2005 that has gained traction for their commitment to transparency in the sourcing of their precious metals and stones. Their public face is one focused on sustainability, and are known to use recycled precious metals as well as lab grown diamonds in their engagement rings and other jewelry. The Solstice Collection represents their first watch line. 

The Solstice Collection consists of two watches, Summer and Winter. They are built on Louis Erard’s La Petite Seconde platform, and feature 39mm stainless steel cases and run on Sellita SW260 automatic movements. The Summer watch has a textured green dial meant to evoke moss, while the Winter features a white dial. Zero points for guessing what type of precipitation this dial is meant to conjure. 

Both watches feature simple “Brilliant Earth” branding at 12:00, with Louis Erard’s name relegated to the caseback, where “Manufactured by Louis Erard” appears. Crowns on both watches have what Brilliant Earth describes as a “Sol motif” which is not standard on the La Petite Seconde watches in the Louis Erard collection. It’s a more ornate, sculptural design. In addition, the Winter dial features four baguette lab diamond markers at 12, 3, 6, and 9. 

I think this is a really interesting move for Louis Erard. The watches are nice looking, and seem to draw from the standard design language the brand has been playing with for some time now, so it stands to reason they found a partner in Brilliant Earth they felt in sync with in all of the ways that make sense. Unlike Louis Erard’s collaborations with independent watchmakers, though, this is not a product aimed at enthusiasts. I imagine Louis Erard hopes to sell these watches at Brilliant Earth boutiques to customers who come in specifically looking for jewelry and might have a passing curiosity or interest in watches. They are not inexpensive (the Summer retails for $3,995 and the Winter for $4,995) but Brilliant Earth does sell diamond jewelry priced well into the five figures, so it’s not inconceivable that a watch like this could be a potential impulse purchase. It’s also a limited edition (35 of the Winter, 65 of the Summer) so I imagine both brands see this as a sort of experiment or test of the market. 

More information can be found at the Brilliant Earth website here.

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