What you Missed at the Hermès Crafting Time Exhibition in Paris, and What you can Expect to see in New York This Fall
If you missed the traveling “Crafting Time” exhibition in Japan, China and Korea, and most recently in France at the Hermès faubourg Saint-Honoré store in Paris, try to catch up with it this fall in November in New York City, at the Hermès boutique on Madison Avenue. It is well worth the visit!
Presenting five skills applied to exceptional Hermès watches: crystal art glass, enamelling, Haute Horlogerie, engraving and gemsetting, the exhibition includes the display of recent and very limited edition or unique timepieces, all housed together under one roof. “And in addition to showing the various crafts that we use to make our watches, this is also a commercial exhibition” La Montre Hermès Creative Director Philippe Delhotal told us last week at the Paris boutique.
If the exhibition is commercial, it is first and foremost an amazing assembly of some of the finest and most rare timepieces ever created, starting with the Arceau Fleurs d’Indiennes coffret containing 3 timepieces with beautiful enamel dials painted by Anita Porchet including a red Grand Feu (connoisseurs will know the difficulty of this) and a cloisonné and miniature, inspired as is often the case by Hermès silk scarves. EUR289,500.
When Delhotal moved to La Montre Hermès in 2009, one of his biggest challenges, he said, was to seek art and crafts techniques hitherto unused in watchmaking, and apply them.
One result is the Arceau Millefiori, presented in 2014 with their incredible dials made of hand-blown glass flowers, inspired by 19th century paperweights, and cut into layers of 7mm, all produced at the Cristalleries Royales de Saint-Louis that dates from 1586 and now belongs to Hermès.
34 mm EUR30,500. 41mm EUR34,000.
Other rare timepieces on display include the Slim d’Hermès Pocket “So H” that was first created in a limited edition of 6 pocket watches (other gold and gem set versions have since been introduced) shown here and priced at EUR15,500.
and the Arceau Lift “Chevaux en Camouflage”, a magnificent example of this “Crafting Time” exhibition that shows off not only a supreme demonstration of cloisonné enamelling, but also the Hermès flying tourbillon, combining enamelling and haute horlogerie.
EUR194,000.
The exhibition also includes new timepieces presented for the very first time, such as this Médor “Pyramide Secrète”, a sparkling cuff bracelet / secret wristwatch diamond set by specialist Claude Sanz, head of Bunter in Geneva, priced at EUR452,500,
and the Arceau Pocket “Ailes et Ecailles” that combines the arts of scarab beetle elytra marquetry with engraving and miniature enamelling.
Priced at EUR115,500.
Happy viewing in New York in November!
Photo Credit: Hermes/Haute Time. For more information, please visit the official Hermes website. Follow Haute Time on Instagram to catch all of the new releases as they happen.
