An enamel dial made using the plique-à-jour technique.

Louis Vuitton is taking confident strides towards the pinnacle of watchmaking, planned yet simultaneously very flamboyant, just like a fashionable maison should. In just a couple of decades, the brand has come a long way from the first watch in 2002 and their acquisition of La Fabrique du Temps in 2011.

They've since made their own complicated movement, received the "Poinçon de Genève" (Hallmark of Geneva), and won awards in a number of nominations at the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève (GPHG). This spring, the company is showcasing its ability to unite the art of watchmaking with artisan crafts in several models. One of the most interesting is the Voyager Flying Tourbillon "Poinçon de Genève" Plique-À-Jour.

The gear train from the winding crown is still revealed in the center, but the colored fragments arguably make this piece far more interesting. They're made using a technique which is rarely applied in watchmaking.

Plique-à-jour is a form of cloisonné enameling, where the backing behind the cells which are filled with colored enamel is removed in a final stage (or absent throughout, in this case). What you're left with is color, and most importantly — light. "Plique-à-jour" can be loosely translated from French as "letting in the daylight".

At Louis Vuitton, they've calculated that it takes 100 hours of meticulous work to create this Art Deco pattern on one dial, which involves applying five to six layers of enamel, followed by firing after each coat.

The plique-à-jour dial resulted in a higher platinum case: up from 9.1 mm to 11.68 mm, but it was definitely worth it. The case size remains a universal 41-mm in diameter. The exquisite enamel only serves to highlight the technical austerity of the manually wound LV 104 movement.

It was developed at La Fabrique du Temps by the engineers who are also working to revive LVMH Daniel Roth and Gerald Genta. The founders of La Fabrique du Temps still at the helm, Michel Navas and Enrico Barbasini, have previously worked for Genta.