One-On-One With La Montre Hermès CEO Luc Perramond
Haute Time Dubai recently had the chance to sit down with Luc Perramond, CEO of La Montre Hermès, during the brand’s ‘Of Mastery and Time’ exhibition in Dubai.
While you’ll have to wait to see the full interview in the upcoming print issue of Haute Time magazine, today we’re bringing you an exclusive excerpt!
Haute Time: What made the ‘Of Mastery and Time’ exhibition so unique, and how did you choose which watches to display?
Luc Perramond: The exhibition is dedicated to pieces of exception to highlight Hermès’ expertise in watchmaking and the ‘métiers d’art’: Haute Horlogerie, Métiers d’Art, precious pieces, Le Temps Suspendu (platinum and gold), as well as Manufacture pieces (in gold). The exhibition plays with time illustrated by the binary rhythm of day and night. The time of day and brightness, characterized by a set of sun beams, with zenithal tower showcases where watches are exposed. The profound blue of the night, that invites customers to discover the details of our precious timepieces within the milky sweetness atmosphere of moonlight.
HT: What is the philosophy behind La Montre Hermès and how does it differ from other watch brands?
LP: Its singular, elegant, discreet and refined style, yet still expressing a strong identity. The quality of the materials, the movements, the assembly and the finishing. The excellence of the leather, calfskin or alligator straps that are hand-finished by the leather craftsmen in our leather workshops. And the expression of a certain philosophy of time – Time to Dream – with technical innovations.
The first model to express this philosophy was the Cape Cod Grandes Heures in 2008 which expresses the time differently and according to customer’s expectations. Hermès offers complex mechanisms that are singular.
The second step was taken in 2011 with the launch of a complication which again offers an unconventional relationship with time. The Arceau Le Temps Suspendu has given us the possibility of maintaining simple time read-off along with a very elegant touch. This year, we have developed a new complication to make our customers dream with a playful function called Dressage L’Heure Masquée, where only the minute can be seen as a normal time reader so that you can enjoy the time for yourself. This is time made to measure, time that is tamed…Such models convey the special relationship Hermès has always cultivated with time: time is a friend. One can tame it and not merely be subject to its constraints, but instead enjoy its company.
We always work with the same objective in mind: offering our customers extremely high-quality products which highlight our distinctive skills, and complications that stand out from conventional complications.
HT: What makes Hermès’ 2014 novelties so unique, for example the Arceau Temari?
LP: Hermès was very excited to present this year’s watches, which are strengthening the legitimacy in watchmaking that we have built over a century. Firstly, we have built the next chapter around the Time to Dream territory after the Arceau Le Temps Suspendu, with the new Dressage L’Heure Masquée. Then, we are relaunching a collection in the Cape Cod line for women which highlights an innovation with an exclusive new silver alloy. And finally, there are also important novelties with the exceptional pieces, especially one which is a craftsmanship which has never been used in the watch industry before. This novelty has been developed with La Cristallerie Saint-Louis (which has been owned by Hermès since 1995). We are using the millefiori technique applied on the paperweight to make exceptional crystal dials. The Arceau Temari presents also a very strong craftsmanship which is the stone marquetry and diamonds settings highlighting the Hermès creativity.
Photo credit: Haute Time Dubai.
