Louis Erard

Louis Erard was born in La Chaux-de-Fonds in 1893, into a town then producing a large share of the world's watches. He worked in its workshops, founded a watchmaking school in 1929, and set up a casing and assembly business with André Perret the same year. The first watches under his own name followed in 1931.

Assembly was the trade at the time: components came from independent artisans and the assembler built, adjusted and finished the watch. By 1937 Erard employed more than sixty people and was selling internationally.

The quartz crisis did its usual damage. The company was sold in 1991 and production moved to Le Noirmont in the Jura, then sold again in 2003 to a group led by Alain Spinedi, who refocused it on mechanical watches at prices that undercut everyone doing similar work.

The regulator became the signature — the dial layout that separates hours, minutes and seconds onto their own axes, borrowed from precision reference clocks, and rarely seen at this price.

What has made the brand's recent reputation is collaboration: limited editions with independent watchmakers whose own work is unobtainable, among them Vianney Halter, Konstantin Chaykin and Alain Silberstein, on Sellita and Valjoux movements.

Louis Erard holds 29 models, from £1,975 to £17,500. Half cost less than £4,390, and a quarter less than £3,290. 28 of 29 are automatic. 17 are stocked by more than one retailer, giving 46 offers in total. Prices are checked nightly against the retailers’ own feeds.

1929

Founds a watchmaking school and a casing business with André Perret.

1931

The first watches carry the Louis Erard name.

1991

Sold, with production moving to Le Noirmont.

2003

Relaunched under Alain Spinedi around mechanical watches.

2020

Collaborations with independent watchmakers define the brand.