Gravée Main marks a new milestone in Louis Erard’s Métiers d’Art series. Hand engraving takes center stage in a limited series of 99 unique timepieces. From case fghfto bezel and fffghfhfrom lugs and crown to buckle, every metal element is fully hand-engraved and finished in a demanding process taking more than 50 hours. Hand engraving brings something machines can’t: uniqueness. Each cut, each curve is done by hand. No two are alike. Just one artist, one piece of steel. The Gravée Main is art.isanship on the wrist. Tradition, with bite. Craft, with character. Centuries-old craftsmanship, made wearable and collectible. A timepiece for the few and for those in the know.
“What I love most about these collaborations is how a minimalist watch becomes something completely different at the artist’s hand. Starting from the clean lines of the Noirmont, baroque floral motifs take over the entire object. It’s steel, yet it feels alive. Gravée Main is all about contrast: lavish ornamentation clashing beautifully with pure design. This watch is unique, not just in what it shows, but in what it says. It speaks of time, art, legacy, as well as resilience, the duty to protect and transmit rare crafts. Artistic crafts should be worn, live, and passed on. That’s our mission.”
Manuel Emch
Watch facts that matter
- Limited edition: 99 unique timepieces, each entirely hand engraved.
- Case: 42mm Noirmont in stainless steel, engraved over 50 hours of work.
- Technique: Traditional hand engraving using burins, drypoints, hand shading. Entire case, lugs, crown, bezel and buckle engraved; no two alike
- Design: Inspired by 18th-century baroque floral motifs
- Dial: Polished black lacquer glossy anthracite and black transfers, rhodium-finished pear-shaped hands
Mission to art
Since 2021, Louis Erard has been pushing the boundaries of Métiers d’Art: Grand Feu enamel, guilloché, wood marquetry, and soon-to-be-launched gold wire inlay. Gravée Main opens a new chapter. A tribute to one of the oldest crafts in watchmaking: hand engraving. Engraving came before watches, born with goldsmiths. By the 18th century, it adorned anything from pocket watches to comtoise clocks. Almost at the same time, swirling Baroque floral motifs flourished. Gravée Main brings both traditions together.
Hand Engraving: the art of depth
The core: the 42mm Noirmont case in stainless steel.
The metal: steel, a material more difficult to engrave by hand due to its greater hardness, its resistance to scratching and deformation.
The process: 50 hours from first pencil stroke to final polish.
The result: a singular object, impossible to replicate and far beyond what any machine can achieve. Each surface, case, bezel, lugs, crown, buckle, shaped and decorated through a precise multi-step engraving process.
It all begins with design: the artist sketches and refines the pattern, then transfers it freehand or with a stencil. Tools are chosen with care, different burins for different depths. The surface is first drypoint-etched to guide the engraving. Then comes the carving, line by line, millimeter by millimeter, adapting each movement to the shape and contours of the watch.
Once engraved, details, shading and textures are added by hand and eye. The case is cleaned and polished to bring out contrast and depth. Finally, quality control: visual balance is checked, structural integrity tested.
The minimalist architecture of Louis Erard becomes a canvas for centuries-old ornamentation, extending even to the dial. Inspired by baroque clocks, it pairs Roman numerals and pear-shaped rhodium-plated hands in a modern reinterpretation. Intentionally understated, the dial features a glossy black lacquer finish with anthracite and black transferred prints.
The artist behind the metal
Each Gravée Main is engraved by hand in Ukraine by Maksym Shavlak, a watchmaker and artist known for transforming antique timepieces into modern hybrids. Using his tools, he gives new life to steel.
“Case engraving is more than decoration, it’s a way to make metal speak.
What began as a series of design exchanges over a year ago became a full creative partnership. Gravée Main is the result. It all started with a meeting, a conversation, a spark of shared vision. I showed Louis Erard what I was doing. They saw something raw and real in my work. They didn’t just want to use engraving as a visual decoration, they wanted to rethink the entire watch around it. Give it space. Let the steel speak.”
Métiers d’Art. Made accessible
With Gravée Main, Louis Erard once again expands its Métiers d’Art series, following launches in Grand Feu enamel, wood marquetry and guilloché. Two new techniques now make their debut at Geneva Watch Days: Gravée Main (hand engraved) and Fil d’Or (gold wire inlay). In a world where such skills are often reserved for collectors of inaccessible timepieces, Louis Erard continues to build bridges between craft and wearability, tradition and modernity, rarity and reach.
