Louis Erard unveils Fil d’Or X Wire Art

The dial isn’t printed, it’s wired. The technique? Patented, precise, obsessive and borrowed from microelectronics. The machine? Designed to bond microcircuits. Now rewired, repurposed, reborn as a tool of art. A gold thread bonding machine. The design? The Louis Erard cube: a herringbone motif that creates a trompe-l’œil illusion. On a deep black lacquered dial, 2,320 gold threads create the cube pattern – just 25 microns thick, three times thinner than a human hair –, while 3,660 solder points define the chapter ring, the hour-markers and highlight certain edges. Each wire is individually drawn, positioned and soldered under binocular high-precision control. One wire every three seconds. 45 minutes of extreme meticulous care.

The baseplate is laser-engraved with thousands of micro cavities, then filled with gold through electroplating. Each thread, each solder point, is placed according to a 2D digital design. Height is adjusted and calibrated to the nearest micron. Pressure, temperature, welding time: nothing is left to chance. The machine executes. The human eye commands.

Each thread starts at a laser-etched anchor point, crosses the dial along a precisely calculated path and ends in another gold-lined cavity. Every contact is micro-soldered, using a reprogrammed bonding machine. It’s gold embroidery at the micromechanical level. Threads and bumps form a motif inspired by the isometric cube, somewhere between optical illusion and miniature sculpture. The dial comes to life on the wrist, playing with light, tricking the eye. Each dial is made by Wire Art Switzerland, in Sainte-Croix.

October 09, 2025