According to a Euromonitor report on 2024 global consumer trends, customers are seeking temporary escapes and delightful distractions that “evoke positive feelings” and “spark joy and release tension.” So it seems prescient that Louis Vuitton designed its newest jeweled clock to resemble a hot-air balloon.

The Montgolfière Aéro, an eight-piece limited edition, leaned into the balloon motif that has appeared on Louis Vuitton leather goods and scarves, and it even inspired the set of the spring 2024 women’s wear show in Paris. (As for the name: the Montgolfière brothers were 18th-century aviation pioneers in France, and Louis Vuitton has said its Aéro Trunk, which debuted in 1906, could be fixed to the basket of a hot-air balloon and was promised to float in the event that the balloon fell into the sea.)

At 34 centimeters (13.4 inches) tall, the clock has an openwork balloon shape, crafted in black ebony wood and gold-plated metal and set with more than 1,200 diamonds. The balloon rests on a miniature Louis Vuitton trunk that houses the clock’s mechanical movement.

The design incorporates three LV monogram flowers, one of the house’s enduring motifs. One, at the center of the balloon structure, is set with a 9.06-carat citrine briolette, its fiery orange and brown hues suggesting the balloon’s burner. Another, set with a square-cut citrine, indicates the clock’s hours and minutes as displayed on two discs at the balloon’s base.

The third forms a flower-shaped lever on the trunk’s underside that unfolds to wind the clock. At 6.4 centimeters tall, the ebony-wood trunk is among the smallest that Louis Vuitton has ever produced and, in a first for the house, comes studded with diamonds.

Michel Navas, a master watchmaker at Louis Vuitton’s La Fabrique du Temps specialist watchmaking center in Geneva, said that the Montgolfière Aéro was a chance to explore larger mechanical objects.

“I love wristwatches and pocket watches, but I love bigger mechanisms, too,” he said, adding that the hot-air balloon design evoked the brand’s connections with travel.

Designed by La Fabrique du Temps, the piece was manufactured by L’Epée 1839, a clock specialist acquired by LVMH in late June. L’Epée has made clocks for the likes of Tiffany & Company, Chanel and the independent watchmaker MB&F, as well as a growing number of individuals.

“Most watch collectors in the world now want at least one clock in their collections,” said Arnaud Nicolas, the chief executive and creative director of L’Epée 1839. “Clocks are something that most of us have seen in our parent’s or grandparent’s house — it was the centerpiece and heart of the home, giving the ring of the hour, every day. Collectors are reminded of that.”