THE ART OF SIMPLICITY
Philippe Delhotal, artistic director of Hermès Horloger, speaks to Selina Denman about creating emotion on the most minuscule of canvases
How Philippe Delhotal, artistic director of Hermès Horloger, conveys emotion on the most minuscule of canvases
“We wanted to capture a certain audacity that is also simple. Because at Hermès, we believe that simplicity is not the easiest thing to achieve,” says Philippe Delhotal, artistic director of Hermès Horloger, about his latest creation, the H08.
Hermès’s dominance in various categories, from fashion and handbags to scarves and saddles, means its watchmaking prowess can sometimes be overlooked. But the historic French maison has been cra ing timepieces since 1912, when Emile Hermès made his first watch for his daughter Jacqueline, by attaching leather straps (custom-made in the Hermès saddle-making atelier, of course) to a pocket watch so she could wear it around her wrist.
By 1928, the house was producing its own timepieces – and selling them in its historic store on Paris’s 24 Rue du Faubourg Honore. Fi y years later, in 1978, it set up a dedicated horology division in Bienne, the heart of the Swiss watchmaking industry, and has continued to invest in developing its own movements, dials and cases ever since.
The minimalist Slim d’Hermès, unveiled in 2015, was a game changer, the first model to feature the ultrathin in-house H1950 movement made by the Swiss manufacturer Vaucher Manufacture Fleurier – which Hermès now owns a 25 per cent stake in.
Since then, the maison has brought a number of distinctive watches to market, including the Cape Cod, H-Hour, Arceau and Medor models. But it is, arguably, only since Delhotal joined the brand’s
watchmaking metier in 2009 that Hermès has truly made its mark in the haute horology space.
The remarkable Arceau L’Heure de la Lune is a case in point. One of the most technically impressive moon phase watches ever created, it offers a simultaneous display of moon phases in the northern and southern hemispheres. Two celestial mobile counters gravitate on an aventurine or meteorite dial, by turns revealing mother-of-pearl moons. It is an intensely poetic tribute to the passing of time and somehow, on the most minuscule of canvases, captures the infinite majesty of the universe.
It also illustrates how Hermès brings a sense of lightness and fantasy to the o en overtly serious world of watchmaking. An exercise in understated, impactful design, the maison’s timepieces are designed to elicit a sense of wonder or, at the very least, to make their owners smile. “To be able to create emotions in such small dimensions, that’s the most difficult thing,” says Delhotal. “If you manage to make your client dream, or elicit awe, when they see this beautiful object, that is when you know you have succeeded.”
I meet Delhotal in the VIP room of Hermès’s flagship store in The Dubai Mall. An industry veteran who has previously worked at Patek Philippe, Vacheron Constantin, Piaget and Jaeger-LeCoultre, Delhotal first fell in love with watchmaking as a teenager. “My mother used to work in watchmaking and I always found it to be such a beautiful world,” he says. “One day, when I was about 14, I discovered my mum’s old tool box and, for some reason, I kept it.”
He remembers receiving his first watch from his parents to mark his first Communion, and while he was very proud of that initial timepiece, it was the gi of a second watch that paved his path to the watchmaking world.
“When I received this second watch from my grandfather, I had the idea of transforming it, using the tool box that had belonged to my mother. I did some trimming here and made some changes there, and also engraved my name on the back of the watch, thinking that one day I would have my own watch brand and would be super-rich.
“I came to realise that watches are such incredible objects – and if you combine the aesthetic side with the technical side, you can create something incredibly beautiful. This is when I understood that I needed to go into the world of watchmaking. And I still own that watch,” he says.
Delhotal’s enthusiasm for timepieces remains undiminished and is evident as he shows me Hermès’s latest launch. He doesn’t like to call the H08 a sports watch – instead, he says, it is a men’s watch “with a sports character”.
It is not the first “sports” watch to come out of the Hermès stable – the Clipper, which launched in 1981
with a design inspired by 19th century sailing ships, holds that distinction, although that model is no longer produced.
But given that Hermès has long been aligned with the sporting world, from skiing and tennis to, most notably, equestrianism – the brand started out in 1837 as a saddle maker and continues to handcra top-end equestrian equipment in its atelier – it made sense to bring a new sports watch to the market, Delhotal says.
“This is just a reflection of our willingness to bring something new and to bring something legitimate to the world of watchmaking,” he tells me. “Hermès never follows trends. We’ve never said, sports watches are becoming trendy, so we should create one. We did it now because now is the right time for us.”
The watch is defined by its distinctive shape – which is neither round nor square; a circular dial is framed by a case with so ened edges. The H08 comes in three large cushion-shaped models with a screw-down crown. The first version features a graphene-filled composite case, topped with a satin-brushed and polished ceramic bezel and black gold-coated dial, and is paired with a black rubber strap secured by a titanium butterfly clasp.
Two other variants – the first in matte black diamond-like carbon-coated titanium and the second in satin-brushed titanium – frame a black nickelcoated dial and are teamed with a blue or black webbing band, or a black or orange rubber strap. At the heart of the new H08 is a mechanical self-winding Manufacture Hermès H1837 movement.
The name comes from the typography of the watch, which mirrors the distinct shape of the dial, particularly in the numbers 0 and 8. The watch is a play in contrasts, at once serious and sensual, robust and delicate, matte and glossy.
“The H08 is a non-conventional watch. It was specially designed with a very contemporary shape. Because it is designed with the contemporary man – a man with character – in mind. And the watch needed to follow in that spirit. The geometrical shape is intentional because geometry is part of the Hermès vocabulary,” he explains.
“It is a watch that you wear every day. Sometimes sports watches are big and thick, and are not always easy and comfortable to wear. This is light and comfortable,” he adds.
The H08, Delhotal says, is a tribute to the clean lines, sensuous materials and impeccable tailoring and detailing of the Hermès men’s universe. But he also draws parallels between the H08 timepiece and the city of Dubai. “It reminds me, a little, of Dubai. When I look at the different architectural styles in Dubai, the different buildings and the different lines, I see a lot of contrast. But there’s also a lot of balance in all these contrasts.”
The H08 is a non-conventional watch. It was specially designed with a very contemporary shape