Art and craft hour
When it comes to setting the standard or the yardstick to measure uber luxury and class, the House of Hermes is without contest the clear master of its class. In 1837, Thierry Hermes, a saddle maker, established his trade as a saddle and horse harnesses maker in Paris, and his reputation as saddle-maker extraordinaire soon spread through the horse-mad high society and the royals who soon became his clients. The rest is history.
Apart from making saddles and everything and anything equine, Hermes has also branched into various other segments of the luxury maker, from saddles to shoes, from bags to fashion and last but not least, horology.
In 1987, Henri d’Origny, the Creative Director of Hermes at that time, designed one of Hermes’ modern classics inspired by the horse’s accessories. The Arceau, over the decades we have seen many iterations of the Arceau collection they were sophisticated, simple, discrete and beautifully crafted and a clear winner of the BCBG and the Sloane Ranger, their English counterpart. The most luxurious segment of the Arceau collection is, of course, the Metier d’Arts, it is an atelier that specialises in handcrafted dials.
Earlier this year Hermes unveiled the Arceau Mon Premier Galop or My First Gallop/Ride in English. The watch is so called because this timepiece that is a reminder of things past, especially when you were a child, as it was the best defining moment in one’s first love for all keen equestrians out there. Hermes has collaborated with Tong Ren, a Chinese-born artist, to design the exquisite dial, and we are loving it for cheerful naivete, which is quite hypnotic.
The design of the dial is inspired by traditional basketry work. The first thing that catches your eyes is the child-like rendition of a horse, cheerful, colourful and full of vitality. When you take a closer look, it hits you how intricate the dial’s decoration is. It is an assemblage of different pieces made by hand, from stitching of silk threads to leather cut-outs and enamelling to give the exquisite, yet adorably cute, the way an over-imaginative child would have executed when given a box of coloured crayons. They all culminate into a 3D effect that makes the horse alive!
Beneath the beautifully hand-crafted dial lies the Manufacture movement from Hermes, the automatic Calibre H19112 with 50 hours of power reserve. They are then housed in a 38mm white gold case set with 82 diamonds on the bezel and come with a Zephyr blue calfskin. A watch that certainly brings back memories of that very fateful day you took your first gallop that defines who you are today. Looking at it you can’t help but smile nostalgically.
