Not all images were able to load for printing. Please close the print window and try again. A Graceful Silver-Spangled Horse for the new Hermès Arceau Robe Légère
Handcrafted with paillonné enamel, a horse with a silvery coat of flowers and leaves illuminates the dial of this Arceau watch.
Hermès is often called the “Maison that speaks with its hands,” and for good reason. With a focus on handmade luxury products and a team of highly skilled artisans, Hermès never ceases to delight. To keep the creative juices flowing and its products fresh, Hermès often invites artists from outside. The latest Arceau Robe Légère watch is no exception, and its rearing horse on the dial is borrowed from a silk scarf created for Hermès by French artist Théo de Gueltzl. Deploying its fabulous team of artisans, the silver embroidery-like texture of the horse is handmade using paillonné enamelling.
One of France’s oldest family-owned and run luxury companies, Hermès started life in 1837 as a purveyor of harnesses and saddles in Paris. Since then, equestrian motifs and horses have appeared across countless products, including the brand’s lineup of watches. The asymmetric stirrup-inspired design of the Arceau case was concocted by Henri d’Origny in 1978. D’Origny was the famed artistic director who defined le gout Hermès during his six decades at the Parisian Maison.
Recently, Hermès has been cross-pollinating motifs found on its iconic silk scarves and reinterpreting them on the dials of its Arceau family of watches. We’ve seen the contemporary Arceau Wow! Watch inspired by comic book artist Ugo Bienvenu’s horseback heroines depicted in miniature painting on a mother-of-pearl dial. The lively, highly colourful scenery of the Arceau Costume de Fête, using a combination of leather marquetry, miniature painting and sequins, was inspired by a silk scarf designed for Hermès by Polish artist Jan Batjlik. More recently, we covered the Arceau Mon Premier Galop, combining silk thread, leather marquetry and enamel to recreate a motif designed for a Hermès shawl by Tong Ren.
Théo de Gueltzl’s design for the Hermès scarf features a rearing horse with a coat made of silver flowers and leaves that looks as though it has been embroidered. However, the horse featured on the dial of the white gold Arceau watch is brought to life using paillonné enamel. The delicate flowers of the horse’s coat are cut from thin slivers of silver leaf and then applied to the dark blue enamel base. The next step involves the demanding art of paillonné enamelling, a technique designed to add sparkle and produce transparent, shimmering depths. With the aid of a microscope, the artisan applies wafer-thin spangles of silver leaf to the composition and seals them from the elements with successive layers of translucent enamel that are fired as many times in the kiln.
The beautiful Robe Légère composition is framed by 71 brilliant-cut diamonds set into the bezel of the 38mm white gold Arceau case with its signature stirrup-shaped lugs. The sapphire window on the caseback reveals the Hermès H1912 calibre made by Vaucher in Fleurier (Hermès has a 25% stake in the manufacture since 2006). Operating at 28,800 vibrations per hour, this high-grade automatic movement with a slim height of 3.7mm can store up to 50 hours of power reserve and is decorated with ‘H’ motifs on the bridges and rotor.
Matching the dark blue enamel of the dial, an abysse bleu Hermès leather alligator strap is fitted to the stirrup-shaped lugs. The Hermès Arceau Robe Légère is a limited edition of 24 pieces, and the price is on request. More information at Hermes.com.
