Louis Erard Continues Dia De Los Muertos Tradition With A Black Case And Colorful Skull

October is skull watch season. Brands time these releases for Halloween and Day of the Dead, and the memento mori skull has become a reliable test bed for dial techniques. Louis Erard’s entry this year is the Dia De Los Muertos Black, a limited edition of 10 with a large painted skull on an all-black watch.

The case is stainless steel, sandblasted and coated in black PVD, and measures 42mm wide. Not small, by any means. It gives the skull room to take over the dial, which is what you want here, but 42mm will rule this watch out for plenty of wrists. Water resistance is 50 meters.

The dial is wonderful. It has a fully black base with an embossed flower pattern that almost disappears into the black since it has no color. But then you have the skull applique, which is painted vividly with six colors, but with white, gray, orange and yellow dominating the look. The floral pattern is also recessed into the skull, so up close it should have real depth. The logo is worked into the top of the skull at 12 o’clock and the brand name runs across the teeth at 6, which is some pretty good integration. The hands are pear-shaped and anthracite plated.

Inside is the Sellita SW261 automatic, beating at 4Hz with 38 hours of power reserve. It comes on a black leather strap with tone-on-tone stitching and quick-release spring bars.

The Louis Erard Dia De Los Muertos Black is limited to 10 pieces and priced at CHF 3,490. See more on the Louis Erard website.