Louis Erard Turns Blue Straw Marquetry Into a 25-Piece Dress Watch

Louis Erard has built a recent reputation for making traditional watchmaking crafts feel approachable without sanding away their character.

The new Marqueterie de Paille continues that direction with a dial made in blue straw marquetry by Portuguese artist Bernardo d’Orey.

Limited to 25 pieces, it sits in that interesting space where a simple two-hand watch becomes a vehicle for a very demanding decorative technique.

At a glance

Straw marquetry in a frozen blue register

Marqueterie de Paille is the French term for straw marquetry, and Louis Erard has taken the name literally here.

The dial is built from precisely cut pieces of straw arranged into a continuous geometric surface, with the grain direction shifting from section to section.

That grain is essential to the effect, because straw catches light in a way that can feel both soft and sharply faceted.

The composition is called Broken Ice, and the name fits the visual language of the dial.

Layered blues move from lighter teal tones at the centre toward deeper sapphire shades near the edge, creating a fumé-like transition without relying on conventional dial printing.

It’s not a minimalist dial, though the watch has a restrained layout.

There’s no date window, no visible seconds hand and no additional complication to compete with the marquetry, leaving the surface to carry the full character of the watch.

Bernardo d’Orey’s hand-cut dial work

Straw marquetry belongs to the broader world of métiers d’art, alongside crafts such as enamelling, miniature painting and sculptural dial work.

Unlike mosaic, where gaps and grout-like separation can become part of the design, marquetry depends on pieces sitting flush and tightly fitted against one another.

That tolerance is part of what makes the dial compelling at close range.

The individual fragments remain visible through colour and grain direction, yet they form a single uninterrupted surface rather than a collage of separate parts.

Bernardo d’Orey spends more than 12 hours on each dial, spread over several days to maintain the concentration the work demands.

That time investment also helps explain the very small edition size, with only 25 examples being made.

For Louis Erard, it’s a familiar but still effective strategy, pairing its accessible mechanical platform with an artisanal dial that would often appear in a far more rarefied price category.

A quiet case for an expressive dial

The watch is housed in a 39mm stainless steel case measuring 12.82mm thick.

Those proportions place it toward the more present end of dress-watch sizing, but the design remains clean enough to keep the focus on the dial.

A beige grained calf leather strap softens the colder blue tones and gives the watch a less formal personality than a black strap would.

Inside is the Sellita SW261-1, an automatic calibre running at 28,800 vibrations per hour with a 38-hour power reserve.

The movement is visible through a grey smoked exhibition caseback, a detail that adds a contemporary note without distracting from the craft on the front.

Water resistance is rated to 50 metres, which is practical for daily wear even if this is clearly a watch made for careful owners rather than rough treatment.

Details & Specifications

The Marqueterie de Paille is likely to appeal to collectors who enjoy artisanal dials but don’t want the watch around them to become overly ornamental.

Its appeal is in the tension between restraint and intricacy, with a blue straw surface that rewards a second look without needing to shout for the first one.