Louis Erard Turns Straw Marquetry Into a 25-Piece Dial Artwork

Louis Erard’s latest limited edition puts one of the more unusual decorative arts directly under the crystal.

The Marqueterie de Paille is built around a handmade straw marquetry dial by Portuguese artist Bernardo d’Orey, using rye straw to create an abstract blue composition called “Broken Ice.” It’s another sign of the brand’s recent interest in bringing traditional craft into contemporary, relatively accessible watchmaking.

At a glance

• Louis Erard has introduced the Marqueterie de Paille, a 25-piece limited edition with a handmade straw marquetry dial.
• Each dial is made by Bernardo d’Orey from 28 sections of rye straw, arranged by hand with tolerances below 0.1mm.
• The watch is priced at CHF 4,500 excluding tax and uses a Sellita SW266-1 élaboré-grade automatic movement.

Straw marquetry enters the Louis Erard vocabulary

Since Manuel Emch joined Louis Erard in 2021, the brand has leaned into collaborations and decorative dial work with unusual consistency.

The Marqueterie de Paille follows pieces such as the Grand Feu by Donzé Cadrans, the Excellence Guilloché Main models, the Wire Art project and the Excellence Marqueterie with artisan Bastien Chevalier.

This time, the craft is straw marquetry, a technique that turns a modest organic material into something closer to architectural surface, textile and abstract painting.

That suits Louis Erard’s current character well, because the brand’s most interesting watches often treat the dial as the whole point rather than as a place to display branding.

A 28-piece dial in blue rye straw

The dial begins with the selection of rye straw, with only pieces chosen for colour, texture and reflective quality making it into the final composition.

Each stem is opened and flattened by hand before d’Orey starts building the geometric design.

The finished dial is made from 28 sections, each with its own shape, size and fibre direction.

Those shifting directions matter, because straw catches light differently depending on how it’s oriented, giving the surface its changing texture as the wrist moves.

D’Orey then applies different shades of blue to strengthen the layered effect and bring out the “Broken Ice” theme.

The work is exacting, with each piece positioned within tolerances below 0.1mm and needing to land correctly from the first attempt.

D’Orey has described the process as requiring a state of “apnea” and absolute concentration, with the 12 hours of handwork needed for each dial spread over several days.

Because the material is natural and the process is artisanal, no two dials are identical.

A restrained case for an unbranded dial

Louis Erard has kept the watch face deliberately clean, with no logo and no indices interrupting the marquetry.

Time is indicated by sword-shaped hour and minute hands, which leaves the composition to carry the watch visually.

The case is polished stainless steel, measuring 39mm across and 12.82mm thick, with the brand’s signature fir tree crown.

A domed sapphire crystal with anti-reflective treatment protects the dial, while an exhibition caseback reveals the automatic movement.

The watch is paired with a beige grained calfskin strap, tone-on-tone stitching, black calfskin lining and a polished steel pin buckle.

Quick-release spring bars make the strap easy to change, a practical detail on a watch whose dial will likely invite experimentation with colour and texture.

Details & Specifications

The Marqueterie de Paille is a collector’s Louis Erard in the most literal sense, limited, handmade and visually led by a craft rarely seen on a watch dial.

Its appeal is less about mechanical bravado than about surface, light and the pleasure of owning a small artwork that happens to tell the time.