We’ve arrived at the time of year where we can finally highlight my favorite seasonal watch niche. Skull watches, most often created to underscore the philosophy of memento mori (an acknowledgement of our mortality) tend to pop up in October to coincide with Halloween and Day of the Dead celebrations. This is a watch design rabbit hole that has snuck up on me over the years, but if you think about it, it makes a certain amount of sense that a skull represented on a dial surface could be an interesting platform for a variety of craft techniques. We’ll have a (long) list of some of our favorite skull watches on the website a little later this month.
But today, we’ll focus on the latest addition to the skull watches canon, the Louis Erard Dia De Los Muertos Black. This is a fairly straightforward skull watch, with a bold and colorful skull clad in floral motifs dominating the dial. This limited edition (only 10 are being made) has a black coated case and black dial, which feels appropriate and also properly frames the colorful skull.
The floral motifs on the skull are recessed, and the brand’s own images suggest a skull design with subtle depth when explored closely. The brand’s logo is blended into the skull at around 12:00, and the name of the brand appears across the skull’s teeth at 6:00. A total of 6 color transfers have been placed on the skull applique, with the dominant tones being white, gray, orange and yellow. The hands are pear shaped and anthracite plated.
All of this is housed in a stainless steel case that has been sandblasted and coated with a black PVD treatment. The case measures 42mm in diameter. I am mixed on the choice to go with Louis Erard’s larger case on this watch. On the one hand, it allows for a larger and more imposing representation of the skull, which is arguably what you want in a statement piece like this. On the other hand, 42mm is going to size many out of this watch and will be a nonstarter from the jump. Of course, only 10 are being produced, so this might not actually be of much concern to the brand – it seems likely they’ll be able to easily find 10 skull watch connoisseurs who will be interested in adding this to an esoteric sub-collection (we all have them, right?).
The Dia De Los Muertos Black is powered by Sellita SW261 automatic movement with 38 hours of power reserve. The watch is mounted to a black leather strap with tone on tone stitching and a quick release spring bars built in.
The retail price on the Dia De Los Muertos Black is CHF 3,490. More information can be found on Louis Erard’s website here.
