44: Suspension
Stop th Fitting the whimsical nature of Hermès perfectly, the Arceau Le Temps Suspendu is a playful idea, perfectly executed. At the touch of a button, the wearer is allowed to temporarily suspend time. One more touch and normal time is resumed. James Gurney
Suspension: 45
e Clock One of the happier side effects of the last decade’s golden streak for the watch business has been the variety now on offer. Where once brands such as Richard Mille, Chanel or Ikepod were real outliers, the expansion of the industry has opened, and proved viable, all sorts of interesting niches allowing brands outside the traditional grandes maisons to develop their own identities without having to try and compete in the ‘more purist than Breguet’ stakes. Why, after all, look to Hermès for ultra haute horlogerie
when the likes of Jaeger-LeCoultre and Vacheron Constantin plough that furrow so successfully.
While brands such as Van Cleef & Arpels and Louis Vuitton have successfully developed credible watch DNA in recent years, it was starting to look as if Hermès had been, in a qualified sense, caught lagging. This was all the more strange as Hermès was an early adopter in watch terms, well ahead of most of its Parisian neighbours.
The Temps Suspendu is the world’s first triple retrograde and features a 360° retrograde hour and minute hand plus a retrograde date hand all operated by a single pushbutton. The rose gold and steel models are available with an opaline silvered dial with herringbone motif, and the steel version is also available with a black herringbone dial. Luc Perramond, Montres Hermès’s CEO.
46: Suspension
Luc Perramond, Montres Hermès’s CEO, admitted that part of his brief was to bring a little balance to a product offering that is almost bizarrely inconsistent (our words, not his). On the one hand there are the fabulous pièces unique such as the enamel-dialled watches inspired by classic Hermès scarf designs – small numbers of haute horlogerie watches based on movements from the Vaucher manufacture that Hermès part owns. On the other hand there is an almost entirely separate, and phenomenally successful (near the 100,000 watch per year mark), business making predominantly quartz, ladies watches at around the £1,500 mark. That the balancing out of Hermès’ offer is needed is plain. How to do that in practice for a company with as much character as Hermès is much less obvious. Of the small number of genuinely global luxury houses, Hermès has a unique combination of seriousness and lightness of touch – nothing is by chance at the brand but nothing is over-played or too dry, so it is perfectly fair to expect more from it.
The Temps Suspendu’s mechanical self-winding movement comprises 254 parts, is 34mm in diameter and 6.15mm thick. With 28,800 vibrations per hour (4Hz) there is a 42-hour power reserve. It features circulargrained and snailed bridges and the oscillating weight is adorned with Côtes de Genève motif.
For those after something truly unique, Hermès has made this one-off Temps Suspendu for Only Watch 2011, featuring a palladium case and blue dial.
The Temps Suspendu’s creator, Jean-Marc Wiederrecht.
Suspension: 47
Meeting expectations A first indication of the future was the rather desirable Carré H from last year with its Girard-Perregaux movement and ultracontemporary lines drawn by French industrial designer Marc Berthier (you will quite likely have seen his rubber-coated TYCHO radio for Lexon). As a limited edition of under 200, the Carré H was never going to be the complete answer in itself, but it certainly showed how well Hermès can perform in what is becoming watchmaking’s most interesting and competitive price segment (essentially between SFr.10,000 and SFr.12,000). This year’s Temps Suspendu, however, shows Hermès has fully delivered on expectations. It is almost the perfect Hermès watch – smart, sophisticated, a little understated and, above all, that dangerous Franco-English word ‘charming’. The Arceau case style speaks for itself – would you guess that 1978 is its design year? At base the Temps Suspendu is a smart, easyto-like watch, the slightly off-centre retrograde (or flyback) date giving the dial just enough to save it from any suggestion of blandness. And the legend of Le Temps Suspendu is not idle whimsy as under the dial is a seriously clever triple retrograde movement developed for Hermès by Agenhor, one of the industry’s leading concepteur houses, a renowned specialist in retrograde functions and a company whose client list includes the likes of Harry Winston (with Opus 9), Van Cleef & Arpels and DeWitt. If you are looking at the dial and wondering why you can see only one retrograde that is because both hour and minute hands are also retrograde in operation – albeit of the 360° ultra-fast variety. Normally the hands simply snap through the 360° as soon as they hit the 12 o’clock position, however, if you press the button at nine o’clock, the name and purpose becomes clear. As the button is pressed, both time hands jump up to the ‘still zone’ and the date hand disappears – voila, time is suspended. Press the button again and the hands jump back to their proper position and show the current time and date, so perhaps this should be time hidden rather than suspended, but very Hermès in any event.
2011’s other variations of the decades-old Acreau, all powered by the Hermès Calibre H1928 – Above: Arceau Skeleton Sellier with dial in grand feu enamelled white gold and cloisonné enamelled numerals; Right: Arceau Pocket Promenade de Longchamp, a unique pocket-watch with leather cordstrap, featuring a natural grey-blue, motherof-pearl dial, carriage and horseman in hand-engraved gold depicting a detail of the ‘Promenade de Longchamp’ Hermès silk carré by Philippe Ledoux; Below left: Arceau H Dédale, featuring champlevé enamelling inspired by the ‘H Dédale’ Hermès silk carré design by Sandy Queudrus.
Ingenious charm And being very Hermès is what the Temps Suspendu is all about – what makes it special. It is a light and charming idea that required real ingenuity to execute. The extra mechanism adds almost nothing to the bulk of the watch and is completely unobtrusive when not in use – the very model of a modern complication. Unsurprisingly, achieving such a simple result was not easy. The speed and arc required were a real challenge – most retrogrades need to jump back through 1,20° or less, whereas the Temps Suspendu hands move through the full 360°. According to Jean-Marc Wiederrecht, Agenhor’s much-respected founder, the combination of the task and the need to keep dimensions down meant that conventional materials and techniques were not up to the job. The particular problem being the need to have gear teeth that mesh tightly enough to ensure precision of movement over such a long arc, but can be relied on not to stick under the strain. The answer was found in specially designed silicon gears in which each tooth has a pre-determined level of flex within its profile – an approach that allows much greater control of the strain in the system. The final surprise of Le Temps Suspendu is the price, currently set at £11,320 in steel, which is far below that asked for some much less interesting watches and, as yet, there are very few watches using any sort of nano-scale technology at this level. Temps Suspendu is not a limited edition as such, but production will be low, meaning that there is still a gap to be filled at Montres Hermès, but as an earnest for the future the Temps Suspendu is hard to fault. Further information: www.hermes.com