The Excellence collection from Louis Erard seems to be where the brand invests most of its efforts. While the brand offers a series of 7750-equipped chronographs in its La Sportive collection, I’ve seen almost no coverage of those watches. Just as well, because the Excellence collection is where the Swiss brand shines, with a wide variety of designs from the more avant-garde Alain Silberstein collaborations to the elegance of the Petite Seconde models. It’s the latter that I’m taking a look at today, in particular, one of the most recent iterations, the Louis Erard Petite Seconde Bleu Glacier.
The Bleu Glacier was released last year with two other colors — Violette and Bleu Nuit — as a trio of additions to the Petite Seconde model line. Of the three, I think this stands out for its tone-on-tone colorway. The dial is the Petite Second layout with which you’re likely already familiar: a slightly raised hour ring with brushing, lower central and peripheral sections, and a recessed subsidiary second at 6 o’clock with azzurage finishing. The handset, as usual, features the brand’s signature fir tree design (though I think they look more like lances). On the Bleu Glacier, the dial proper is a light, icy blue color, while the hands and indices are a polished electric blue. The colors certainly do bring to mind the shifting blues that one sees in the massive blocks of ice in the more photogenic glaciers you may find in the pages of National Geographic.
The case is straightforward. At this point, having handled a number of Petite Seconde models, I think the case could use a refresh, certainly a bit of a diet. It’s a little bulbous and a little thick, and the stiff color-matched strap doesn’t really do it many favors. Fully polished, it measures 39mm in diameter with a lug-to-lug of 45.9mm and a thickness of 12.82mm. Not the thickest of watches (even amongst 39mm), but the rounded bezel and the curved sapphire, coupled with a bit of a bubble butt, serve to make it stand out a bit. Though it’s not unwearable, I would’ve paired it with a more flexible strap to help it sit more easily and less stoutly on the wrist.
As with all its Petite Seconde models, the Bleu Glacier sports a Swiss automatic Sellita SW261-1 movement. Seen through the sapphire caseback crystal, the movement delivers an average power reserve of 41 hours at 28,800 vph. Louis Erard cites an accuracy of -/+7 seconds per day and affixes it with a custom rotor with a black lacquer logo. For my part, I’d trade the view of the mostly undecorated movement for the thickness saved by using a solid caseback.
With so many variants of the Petite Seconde available — 15 are currently listed on the brand’s site — it’s hard to say that this is the best. There’s too much subjectivity involved when the options are so varied, but the blue-on-blue works very well here and delivers on the glacier name. Certainly of the trio it was released with, this one stands out for its cool color. The Louis Erard Petite Seconde Bleu Glacier is priced at $2,800 USD. For more information, please visit the brand’s website.
