Playful Ways To Tell Time

Play has always been associated with the young, and Hermès wholeheartedly embraced this theme in 2018, tossing playful motifs all across the Hermès universe, from bags, scarves and shoes to fashion and home accessories.

The house continues to play and seek out a younger market in its 2018 collection of watches, which are every bit fashion accessories as they are haute timepieces that any watch aficionado would be proud to wrap around their wrist.

Lyn Chan, Hermès’ senior marketing and communication manager Asia South, showed me new versions of three of Hermès’ most emblematic watches; now you can tell time in trendy (Médor Rock), classic (Cape Cod), and sporty (Carré H) ways.

Rock Around The Clock

The pyramid-shaped stud first entered Hermès’ world in the 1930s, inspired by the nails that held hunting dog collars together. Founder Thierry Hermès’ grandson Emile-Maurice Hermès collected objects from different periods like stirrups and dog collars, and his collections are now gathered in a conservatory-like museum where Hermès designers go to get inspired.

In the ’30s the house started studding its belts, then subsequently issued a dog-collar bracelet. But perhaps nothing plays on the motif more than the Médor secret watch, first released in 1991, in which a pyramid stud concealed a hidden watch face. When you pressed the crown located at three o’clock, the stud would flip open with a satisfying click, revealing the hours and times.

This year’s version, the Medor Rock (a quartz watch), is much smaller and cuter (a mere 16 x 16 mm), with a leather strap that wraps not just once (what they call “single tour”) or twice (double tour) around your wrist, but three times (triple tour)! Designed to appeal to younger, trendier customers, it’s a fun fashion accessory that comes in different models: you can have the dome-shaped stud in plain steel, lacquered in red, white, blue or black, or even set with an “X” of 44 white diamonds. The strap comes in vermilion red, inky blue, grained white, or black Barenia calfskin.

Whether you’re a true punk, just a little bit rebellious (like I am) or want to convey rock-star chic, the Médor Rock is for you.

Wrap Star

In 1991, legendary Hermes artistic director Henri d’Origny invented the preppy Cape Cod watch. The story goes that then Hermes chairman Jean-Louis Dumas told him to design a square watch, but the designer — not really enamored of the typical square — went against instructions, camouflaging his little rebellion by nestling a square watch face within a rectangular bezel. He also wanted a very strong, distinctive Hermes feature to be placed on the watch, so he decided on the anchor chain, or chaine d’ancre in Hermes speak, splicing it into two and using the resulting shape to form the lugs holding the straps and now as a design motif on the dial, cleverly replacing the indexes for 12 o’clock, 3 o’clock, 6 o’clock and 9 o’clock.

When Martin Margiela became Hermes’ creative director of ready-to-wear, during the 1998 fashion show he wanted the models to look very minimalist, eschewing any accessories or jewelry for something very simple to twirl around the wrist. That was how Hermes invented the Double Tour, first mounting it on the Cape Cod, and the leather wraparound strap shot to fame in the fashion industry. ?This year the Cape Cod’s double tour has evolved into a steel bracelet in Milanese mesh that wraps sinuously around the wrist, but one thing hasn’t changed: the double tour was a strong fashion statement then and still is today. 

Hip To Be Square

Thanks to the Hermes pocket square, the square shape is quite dear to the house. In 2010 the first square Carré H was created because at the time, Jean-Louis Dumas was having a conversation with Marc Berthier, a renowned architect in Paris. Dumas asked him, “What kind of watch would you design for a traveler dandy?”

Berthier’s answer was a square watch, which Hermes christened the Carré H. At the time it was quite unusual to have a square watch in the industry, albeit an architectural one, and the Carré H had rounded edges, which made it sit on the wrist more comfortably. With the watch face a circle nestled within a square, the dial didn’t have numerals either but a raised 3-D bar.

For this year’s Carré H, it was playtime for Hermes once again. Current artistic director Pierre-Alexis Dumas went through Berthier’s archives and saw the sketches of the original Carré H. Intrigued, he decided to bring the style back to life but with a sportier touch. From different angles, the dial’s various finishes catch and play with the light like a hologram; raised numerals have zeros added to them to balance out the face; and the needle hand that sweeps around has an anchor-like tail. Berthier had actually designed a typography exclusive to Hermes for the original Carré — a feature you won’t get from other houses more focused on creating the complication than special fonts and aesthetic details.

Best of all, the new Carré is equipped with Hermes’ in-house movement, which you can view through a window in the case back. The leather strap acquires a vintage patina as time wears on, the buckle echoes the square shape of the watch, as do the holes to fasten the buckle. Which just goes to show that for a creative house like Hermes, no element is too small and everything is in the details.

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The Hermes boutique is located at Greenbelt 3, Ayala Center, Makati City.