Good Heavens

As we predicted last year, Hermès is extending its quirkiest take on the moon phase complication yet with stunning new references

THE ARCEAU L’HEURE DE LA LUNE WATCH was a creative and technical triumph when Hermès first unveiled it in 2019. Its functions were straightforward, with the timepiece showing the time, date and the moon phase as seen from both the northern and southern hemispheres. How these complications were executed, however, was an entirely different story ‒ in lieu of apertures or hands, two stationary “moons” on the dial are alternately obscured and revealed by the two sub-dials orbiting above them. These sub-dials, in turn, house the time and date displays. As the orbital direction is clockwise, the moon phase displays are swapped; the northern hemisphere’s view is at six o’clock, thus lending another touch of quirkiness to the timepiece.

Three new references of the Arceau L’heure de la lune watch have been introduced this year. They share the same “moons” as their predecessors, with the mother-of-pearl discs undergoing transfer printing to display a replica of our moon at six o’clock and a stylised Pegasus at 12 o’clock. The same movement (plus module) and asymmetric Arceau case have been retained too. The rarest among the new references is limited to just two examples, and comes in a platinum case with a Martian meteorite dial on a Veronese green alligator leather strap. Two other variants in white gold are also available. As shown here, the one with a black alligator strap has a black Saharan meteorite dial, while the version sporting a brown alligator strap features a Lunar meteorite dial instead. They are limited to just 30 and 36 pieces worldwide respectively. AM