Lifestyle Report from Singapore: Hermès gets serious about watches

Watch aficionados, time out: After launching a watch that can stop time, Hermès is once again proving it’s the company to watch for.

On Oct. 4, La Montre Hermès (Hermès Watch) launched its first two in-house mechanical movements in Singapore, the H1837 and H1912. Powering two of its most emblematic watches, the Dressage for men and Arceau for ladies, the move marks Hermès’s evolution from fashion watch brand to serious contender in the industry.

“It’s another step in our development as a watchmaker,” said Luc Perramond, CEO of La Montre Hermès (LMH). “And it’s very important because if you want to be recognized as a serious player committed to watch-making, you need to make this kind of investment, and to develop this expertise and craftsmanship in-house.”

This has always been the way of Hermès, whether it’s the leather they use for their iconic bags or the silk they spin into scarves: mastering craftsmanship through their artisans and controlling product quality by making all the critical components in-house.

Last year they invested in Swiss watch case manufacturer Joseph Erard, then took 100 percent of Swiss dial maker Nateber. At present they have a 25-percent stake in Vaucher Manufacture Fleurier, which develops all of the house’s complicated watch movements. It’s all part of Hermès’s grand plan to one day become a bona-fide watchmaker.

“We are not a manufacturer yet but we are moving on this road to manufacturing,” Perramond says. “This is the dream and the ambition.”

Mario Katigbak, Hermès’s general manager in the Philippines, adds, “For us it’s perfect timing because Hermés has now moved on to the mechanical watches, the more complicated movements, so we will be playing in the field together with all the known brands.”

WINNING THE OSCARS OF THE WATCH WORLD

Last year, Hermès won the Oscars of the watch world — best men’s watch at the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Geneve — with Le Temps Suspendu (Time Suspended), a watch that came to a standstill with the press of a button.

“You can say to your wife or girlfriend, ‘My darling, I am stopping time for you,’” says Jerome Souman, general manager of La Montre Hermès Southeast Asia. “Then, after you spend quality time with her, you press the button again and the watch goes back to the correct time.”

Time Suspended was a breakthrough — a movement and function that was never invented before. “It was a true innovation,” Perramond says, “using some of the traditional techniques of watchmaking but in a new way. And this was the most fun and innovative watch we ever made. It’s very daring to say to a watchmaker, ‘Make us a watch that can stop time.’”

TIME IN MOTION

Time was on Hermès’s side again in Singapore, where the launch of the movements was done in the house’s typically luxurious, imaginative style. LMH staged a specially choreographed dance performance called “Time in Motion” at Singapore’s School for the Arts, in which the dramatic lighting, background videos and dancers’ movements all evoked watches and the passage of time — a journey that was both poetic and ultimately moving.

Afterward guests were ferried to a secret location that turned out to be a garden inside the Lasalle College of the Arts that Hermès converted into an alfresco dinner venue. Two chefs were flown in from Paris to cater the event with bite-size savories and sweets with molecular flair.

Journalists also got to examine the watches and their inner workings up close. Even if clients don’t usually see the self-winding calibres inside their timepieces, Hermès’s attention to detail is peerless. The “H” of the company’s logo is strewn all over the satin-brushed oscillating movement and its bridges, and this pattern is not stamped, but engraved by hand.

“It’s a very small piece of work,” Katigbak affirms, “but this is what collectors look for.”

SIX YEARS IN THE MAKING

It took six years to develop H1837 and H1912. The objective was to build an engine — a solid base movement that had enough power and performance to sustain all future functions. “Right now it’s a very simple movement with three hands — hour, minute, second and date,” Perramond says, “but in the future we can add to these movements functions like moonface, calendar and chronograph.”

The movements are named after significant dates in the brand’s history: 1837 was the year Thierry Hermès made his first leather harnesses; 1912 was when Jacqueline Hermès, one of the founder’s great-granddaughters, wore a pocket watch strapped to her wrist by a leather bracelet specially developed by the house, marking the first time that Hermès merged leather and watch together.

The gents’ Dressage and ladies’ Arceau models were chosen because they hewed closest to the equestrian spirit of Hermès — the Dressage with its barrel shape and Arabic numbers set off in bubbles, while the round Arceau boasts asymmetric lugs inspired by the part of the horse’s harness that adjusts the length of the stirrup, and slanted numerals that dance around the dial.

Another signature is the bracelet, which utilizes Hermès’ leather-making expertise. French artisans in a Swiss workshop fashion straps from leather and exotic skins like alligator, and this is another level of craftsmanship altogether. “It takes one hour to do a strap like this by hand,” notes Perramond. “Other watch brands buy straps from a generic strap maker, but we do our own.”

HOW SWISS IT IS

Founding family member Jean-Louis Dumas, a watch lover who turned Hermès into a global luxury brand, set up La Montre Hermés in 1978, daring to base it in Switzerland far from its French roots — because that was where the watch experts were. After an initial collection of ladies’ quartz watches to appeal to younger customers, Dumas and company gradually realized that they needed to specialize, go into mechanical movements and tap the huge men’s market.

Today, LMH accounts for 150 million euros, five percent of Hermès’s yearly turnover of three billion euros, and it’s rapidly growing. “The ambition is for watches to represent a higher percentage of Hermès’ total sales,” says Perramond, who is optimistic about the Philippine market.

Aside from the main store in Greenbelt 3, Hermès has built three watch corners in Rustan’s Makati, Shangri-La Plaza and Newport Resorts World.

According to Katigbak, Hermès’s Clipper watch is a favorite among Filipino men “because its rubber strap comes in orange and blue so it’s very colorful, very iconic. And for the ladies, it’s the H Hour. It’s growing very fast,” he says with a smile. “September for us was a banner month — a fantastic sellout.”

“Our (Philippine) customers share the values of Hermès, and they see those values in the watch collections,” observes Perramond, “so I have high hopes.”

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Hermès watches are available at the Hermès boutique in Greenbelt 3, and at the Watch Corners in Rustan’s Silver Vault Makati, Shangri-La Plaza and Newport Resorts World.