Louis Erard 2340 in Mauve and Forest: Color as Construction

Key Highlights

• Two new dial variants — Mauve and Forest — join the Louis Erard 2340 integrated bracelet collection
• Mauve features a luminous purple lacquered dial with an oblong stamped pill pattern; Forest carries a deep green lacquered dial with a horizontal lined texture
• Case: 40 mm diameter, 8.95 mm thickness, satin-finished titanium and polished stainless steel, water-resistant to 5 bar
• Movement: Sellita SW300-1 automatic, 3.60 mm height, 56-hour power reserve, openworked oscillating weight with black lacquered Louis Erard symbol
• Integrated five-link bracelet, 92 components total, butterfly folding clasp with spring-blade mechanism
• Price: CHF 3,250 excl. tax for both references

A Postal Code Becomes a Design Statement

The 2340 collection takes its name from Le Noirmont — the Swiss Jura village that has been Louis Erard’s home since 1929 and whose postal code now anchors a design language. When the model arrived in October 2025, it marked the Maison’s first integrated bracelet: a deliberate move into material-driven, architecturally cohesive watchmaking. Mauve and Forest do not revise that architecture. They occupy it with new presence.

Manuel Emch, who leads Louis Erard, is direct about the approach: the foundation of case, bracelet, and proportions remains untouched. The intervention is the dial. It is a precise creative position — one that treats chromatic and textural variation not as cosmetic update but as character shift. Both new references carry the same Ref. prefix structure, the same 40 mm case, the same slim automatic calibre. What changes is the entire reading of the watch.

Mauve: Softness Given Structure

The Mauve dial is lacquered in a luminous purple and stamped with an oblong pill pattern across its surface. The pattern creates rhythm — a soft repetition that catches light obliquely and gives the dial dimensionality without visual noise. White transferred minute track, a satin-finished plate at 3 o’clock engraved with the “LE” logo, and rhodium-plated diamond-cut indexes with SLN-C1 blue-luminous coating complete the composition. The hands share the same finishing language: rhodium-plated, satin-finished top surfaces, diamond-cut edges, blue emission.

Forest: Depth Through Horizontal Line

Forest moves in the opposite direction. The dial is a deep green lacquer crossed by a horizontal wave pattern — more graphic, more structural. Where Mauve gives softness volume, Forest gives depth a grid. The same index and hand specification applies, so the blue luminous emission reads with particular clarity against the darker ground. These are not casual colour choices. Each dial texture was selected to operate specifically with its colour — the pill pattern suits the luminosity of mauve; the horizontal line suits the weight of forest green.

Construction: The Integrated Bracelet as Design Logic

The 2340’s integrated bracelet — Louis Erard’s first — is not a feature appended to the watch; it is the watch’s structural argument. At 92 components across five links in titanium and stainless steel, polished stainless steel defines the outline: bezel, lugs, crown, caseback, and the center bracelet links all share the same finish. The satin-finished titanium flanks absorb light; the polished surfaces define edge and plane. The result is a bracelet that tapers with the watch’s profile and flows from case to wrist without interruption.

The Case and Movement

The case runs 40 mm in diameter with a lug-to-lug of 41.50 mm — proportions that sit securely without dominance. At 8.95 mm thick, the architecture is owed to the slim automatic calibre within: the Sellita SW300-1 at 3.60 mm height, 28,800 VpH, 25 jewels, and a power reserve of approximately 56 hours. The oscillating weight is openworked and carries the black lacquered Louis Erard symbol. The closed caseback and sapphire crystal with dual anti-reflective treatment are consistent with the case’s measured, purposeful construction. Water resistance reaches 5 bar (50 m / 165 ft).

Louis Erard and the Detail That Changes Everything

Founded in 1929 and rooted in the independence that the Swiss Jura demands, Louis Erard has consistently worked at the boundary between accessible mechanical watchmaking and genuine creative ambition. Collaborations with Alain Silberstein, Vianney Halter, and Konstantin Chaykin have established the Maison’s tolerance for risk. The 2340 Mauve and Forest are a different kind of risk — quieter, more internal — but no less deliberate. They ask whether a dial texture and a colour choice are sufficient to shift a watch’s personality entirely. The answer, across both references, is unambiguous.

For GCC collectors who place equal weight on chromatic restraint and material intelligence, these two variants occupy a position that few Swiss independents currently fill at this price point. Neither reference makes a loud entry. Both command attention at close range — which is precisely where considered watchmaking operates. Priced at CHF 3,250 excl. tax, the 2340 Mauve (Ref. 35123TA12.BMT12) and 2340 Forest (Ref. 35123TA03.BMT12) are positioned well within reach of a collector expanding beyond the dominant integrated-bracelet conversation.

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