Founded in Paris in 1837, the House of Hermès built its reputation for excellence on its skill in making horse saddles. In the early 20th century, it further developed this know-how acquired in the field of leather craftsmanship, notably by producing belts, clothes and bags. The Hermès watchmaking tradition dates back to the 1920s, when its saddle-making talent was first exercised on watch straps. In 1928, the first Hermès watches were presented in the company store at 24, Faubourg Saint-Honoré. At the time, Hermès placed its signature on “timepieces” created in cooperation with the greatest names in the Swiss watch industry – such as Jaeger-LeCoultre, Universal, Vacheron Constantin and Audemars Piguet – before founding in 1978 the Ateliers de La Montre Hermès in Switzerland. Almost ten years ago, La Montre Hermès entrusted the production of its haute horlogerie mechanical models to Vaucher Manufacture Fleurier, in which it current holds a 25% stake and with which it shares a passion for hand-crafted fine workmanship. Heir to over two centuries of expertise, this great name in the watch business is indeed one of the rare full-fledged manufactures to master the full range of horological professions. This association enables La Montre Hermès to adopt a traditional small-scale approach to complications meeting the standards of craftsmanship and quality cherished by the House. Luc Perramond has been at the head of La Montre Hermès since 2009, and has assigned it the mission of creating “time to dream”, specifying that he wished to place technology in the service of poetry and stating that “we must enchant clients”.
Just as Hermès does with all artisans working for the great House, whatever their profession, it requested the multiple award-winning creative watch designer Jean-Marc Wiederrecht to take his time in creating an unconventional object. Three years later, when the world-first function housed within the Arceau Time Suspended watch is activated, the question that comes to mind is not “what time is it?”, but “where time is it?”. By delicately pressing the pushpiece at 9 o’clock, the Epicurean owner of this timepiece decides to take a break. The hour and minute hands switch to stand-by mode by positioning themselves around noon in an entirely unaccustomed manner. The watch no longer indicates the time, although it continues to count it off. Once again pressing the same pushpiece at any time makes the watch display the correct time once more, thanks to a complex split-level mechanism with column wheel and 360° retrograde hands.
With its two new poetic novelties, Hermès invites watch lovers to extend their precious moments and reduce their more trivial counterparts. The hours of the new Cape Cod Grandes Heures race ahead and then slow down. It’s about taking time to sort out priorities. A curved, rectangular case that breaks the mo¬notony of circular time. A dial imbued with an elegance that plays with conventions. A sophis¬ticated mechanism that invents its own dance. The toothed oval wheel system conducts the hour hand, enabling it – thanks to the shape of the gear – to speed up or slow down its motion  while the minutes and seconds tick by at a constant pace. The dial numerals meekly follow the musical score, correspondingly accelerating or decelerating the cadence of the hours. The silvered or anthracite dial provides time made to measure with a beautiful guilloché setting swept over by skeleton hands. Within this subtly chaotic choreography, the stylised curves of the numerals create a fascinating contrast with the pure design of the stainless steel case. A form of elegance that disrupts the hours and suggests a new way of living with one’s time. By taking the time.

 

Inimitable style
Designed in 1978 by Henri d’Origny, the Arceau watch is named after and inspired by a saddlery element : a hoop-shaped part of the stirrup. Its classic, timeless and unostentatiously elegant aesthetic, along with its evocation of the equestrian world, make it one of the emblematic models in the brand’s watch collections – and one that is particularly representative of the inimitable style of Hermès, saddle-maker in Paris since 1837.
This year, a new version is enriching the line of Arceau watches. Echoing the case of the 43 mm chronograph model, the Arceau Grande Lune watch is a complete calendar watch featuring day and month apertures. Its dial is stamped with a herringbone motif identical to that found on saddle rugs. The stamped and rhodiumed numerals maintain the classic appearance of the original model, with a sloping design that follows the movement of the hands and seems to keep ahead of time.
The broad opening at 6 o’clock highlights the moon disc and its rhodiumed stars specifi cally designed by Hermès in a deep blue shade. The calendar display indexed around the moon disc is surrounded by a rhodiumed flange, while the snailed motif radiating from the centre of the counter creates a refi ned sunburst effect. The moonphase module is fitted to a self-winding movement that may be admired through the transparent case-back revealing its circular-grained and snailed finishing adorned with Côtes de Genève.

 

 

Arceau Grande Lune
Case : steel, sapphire transparent case-back Diameter : 43mm Mechanical self-winding movement (Dubois-Dépraz 9313 caliber with  Large Moon module), circular-grained and snailed bridges, oscillating weight adorned with “Côtes de Genève” motif Functions : Hour, minute, centre-second, hand indicating the date at 6 o’clock, days display at 11 o’clock, months display at 1 o’clock,large moon display at 6 o’clock Dial : Opaline silvered  (or galvanic black) with stamped herringbone motif and rhodiumplated hour-markers  Strap : Matt havana alligator with safety folding clasp