Ticking Time Bomb: Hands-On With The L’Epée Grenade

L’Epée was founded in 1839 and just last year was acquired by LVMH, the luxury group that owns a stable of high-end watchmakers including TAG Heuer and Zenith. While you may have never heard of this relatively obscure clockmaker, L’Epée has been responsible for some of the most audacious and creative clocks out there. In his video for "RIOT (Rowdy Pipe’n)" A$AP Rocky wore a L’Epée x Alex Moss EXO Grenade around his neck like a pendant. While that one was a tourbillon covered in diamonds, the L’Epée Grenade desk clock (or pendant) has become one of the brand’s most popular and brash creations. Earlier this year, at LVMH Watch Week, I was able to take a look at some of these inarguably cool ticking “time” bombs.

If you’re totally unaware of what L’Epée has been up to in recent years (and I’d imagine several of you are), the aesthetic and style of its pieces varies wildly. There have been several L’Epée collaborations with MB&F, including a T-Rex clock and an absolutely wondrous Steampunk Airship clock called the Albatross. L'Epée has also have kept things simple with its latest transparent watch box, which is done in acrylic and serves really no purpose other than to enhance the watch you place within it. Oh, it does have a spring mechanism allowing its hatch to smoothly open.

The Grenade clock is modeled after the pin-activated MKII hand grenade that was used by the United States in World War II and became ubiquitous in countless media depictions of the war. The pin here is used as a key, which sets the time and winds the eight-day movement. Built out of palladium-plated brass, steel, and aluminum that is then finished with polishing, satin brushing, and semi-transparent lacquering, the L’Epée Grenade looks and feels like a real high-end work of art and not just a fun plaything. The dimensions are 77.6mm wide, 66.6mm deep, and 120.5mm tall with a weight of 620 grams — which is just about the exact same specs as the MKII.

Reading the time here is fairly straightforward, as there are two disks near the top of the case by the pin: the upper disk displays the hours while the lower disk displays the minutes. Beneath these disks is the unique vertical movement, which is in-house designed and manufactured and operates at 2.5 Hz with an eight-day power reserve.

The L’Epée Grenade comes in eight colors, each limited to 99 pieces: Black Raven (which is sold out); 50 Shades of Grey; Pink Coral Reef; Wild Blue Yonder; Deep Blue; Purple Rain; Green Forest Dawn; and Red October. Each is priced at 10,900 CHF which comes out to just a hair over $12,000. You can learn more about the Grenade and L’Epée’s other creations over at lepee1839.ch.