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Louis Erard Le Régulateur x Cédric Johner Limited Edition 39mm Unisex Watch Blue
Ref. 85249AA01.BVA150
Sits in Louis Erard’s upper tier here — more premium than three quarters of the Louis Erard watches we list, which start at £1,975.
Price range £1,975 to £5,950 across 24 Louis Erard watches in stock.Louis Erard's ongoing series of limited collaborations has produced some of the more considered small-edition pieces at the accessible end of Swiss watchmaking, and this one with Cédric Johner — a watchmaker and jeweller whose aesthetic runs to precision ornament — is among the more resolved. Only 178 exist. The regulator layout is the conceptual anchor: minutes read from the centre, hours sit in their own sub-dial at twelve, and seconds run separately at six. It is a format borrowed from precision workshop timekeepers, where separating the hands eliminated the risk of misreading overlapping indications. Here it gives the blue sunray dial an unusual clarity, and the hexagonal aperture that Johner specified as his signature detail gives the whole thing a geometry that holds attention without demanding it. At 39mm with a lug-to-lug of 45.90mm, this sits squarely at the wrist rather than sprawling across it, and the domed hexagonal crystal lifts the dial slightly — you notice it most in raking light, where the double-sided coating keeps reflections from competing with the anthracite sub-dials beneath. The detail most owners will return to is through the caseback: Johner applied 230 individual beads by hand to the oscillating weight of each movement, a form of decoration that takes longer than the word "decoration" suggests, and that makes no two rotors quite identical.
- Reference
- 85249AA01.BVA150
- Brand
- Louis Erard
- Case size
- 39mm
- Case thickness
- 12.82mm
- Lug width
- 20mm
- Case material
- Stainless steel
- Dial
- Blue
- Crystal
- Sapphire
- Movement
- Automatic
- Calibre
- Sellita SW266-1
- Functions
- Small seconds, Skeleton dial
- Water resistance
- 50m
- Bracelet / strap
- Leather strap
- Strap colour
- Black
- Clasp
- Buckle
- Retailer
- Goldsmiths
Additional specifications
- Lug-to-lug
- 45.90mm
- Power reserve
- 38 hours
Learn more about 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.
- 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.
Also in 6 collections
This watch appears in Back in Stock (4,300), Stainless Steel Watches (2,846), Automatic Watches (1,403), Leather Strap Watches (928), Blue Dial Watches (803) and Dress Watches (460).
Manufacturer’s guarantee
Best of 2 retailers
What the specifications mean
A mechanical watch for everyday wear.
Strengths
- 39mm suits most wrists
- 45.9mm lug-to-lug keeps the 39mm case wearable
- Sapphire crystal, which resists scratching
- One of Louis Erard's more premium watches
Worth knowing
- 50m suits rain and handwashing, not swimming
- 38-hour reserve means winding it after a day off
Louis Erard Le Régulateur x Cédric alternatives
Watches from other brands at a similar price, style and size, so you can see what else your budget can buy.
| Specification | 85249AA01.BVA150 | SBGM255 | 147 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | £4,500 | £4,550 | £3,680 |
| Case size | 39mm | 39.5mm | 38.5mm |
| Water resistance | 50m | 30m | 50m |
| Movement | Automatic | Automatic | Automatic |
| Strap | Leather strap | Leather strap | Leather strap |
| Power reserve | 38 hours | 72 hours | 42 hours |
| This watch |
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Your new watch
Frequently asked questions, and things you should know about this watch
Can I swim with it?
Showering yes, swimming no. 50m covers splashes and brief immersion, but a swimming stroke generates well above the pressure that figure describes.
Water resistance explainedWill the glass scratch?
Unlikely. Sapphire is second only to diamond in hardness and shrugs off everyday marking.
Sapphire, mineral and acrylic comparedDoes it need a battery?
No. It is automatic — the motion of your wrist winds it, and there is no cell to replace.
Quartz, automatic and solar comparedHow long does it run for when it's not worn?
About 38 hours fully wound — so it will usually stop if you leave it off overnight.
What size strap does it take?
20mm. Any strap of that width will fit, and on most modern watches quick-release bars make the swap a two-minute job with no tools.
Will it fit my wrist?
Lug-to-lug is 45.90mm, which suits wrists from roughly 16cm (6¼ inches) upward.
Lug-to-lug decides fit more than case diameter does.
How to size a watch to your wristIs it a men's or women's watch?
Listed as unisex, and at this size it suits any wrist that takes the dimensions.
Cheapest place to buy
Both Goldsmiths and Mappin & Webb list it at £4,500, so choose on delivery and warranty rather than price.
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