Cape Cod, imagined 35 years ago at the drawing table of artistic director Henri d’Origny, who also designed hundreds of scarves for Hermès, meets the spring with seven iterations in a new mini format. The new dimensions are 27x20 millimeters, and when you look at the entire Cape Cod collection, you will find the larger siblings at 31, 37, and 41 millimeters.
The square within a rounded rectangle shape stems from playing with the shape of a so-called anchor chain link. This kind of chain gets its extreme strength from the stud link dividing each link into two mirrored Ds. On the watch it looks like the Ds are divided in two, with a square shape in between.
What defines the new versions with calfskin straps and quartz movements, of which three are in yellow gold, and four in steel? Let’s start with the yellow gold and burgundy version, which comes with a burgundy strap. Yes, shades of red are upon us, and of course Hermès is one of many brands to follow this trend.
Of the other two gold versions, one is clad with 46 diamonds and a sunburst doré dial. Doré is Hermès-speak for the golden dial, and this color is also applied with a distinct, shimmering finish on the Chamkilight goatskin strap – a specialty of Hermès that it also masters on its bags.
Enter two of the steel models, with étoupe or ardoise sunburst dials and matching calfskin straps. Maybe I should have written that the other way around, since the dials actually match the straps, bearing two of the best-selling colors of Hermès bags. Étoupe is taupe, a love child of brown, gray, and beige, whereas ardoise could be described as slate gray.
Last but not least, there are two more steel models with sunburst argenté dials (silvery) and Gris perle Athena calfskin straps. One of the steel cases is adorned with 46 diamonds, whereas the other is cleanly polished. The pearl gray is again a color picked up from one of the maison’s bags, perfected in the dedicated strap workshop in Biel/Bienne.
All seven watches come with a single- or double-tour strap, which has been a staple of the brand from when it was introduced by Martin Margiela in 1998 –when the Belgian designer was the artistic director of Hermès. Legend has it that Mr. Margiela had a spur-of-the-moment idea on the eve of a major fashion show, when he decided to quickly create a double-tour strap for the runway. (He was probably inspired by a twice-trapped belt he created in the 1980s.) There was only one problem: the double-tour straps worn by the models on the catwalk caught extreme attention.
Orders started pouring in – for a product that did not yet exist! It took some months for production to catch up, and ever since then, the double-tour strap has been part of Hermès’s modern legacy.
I have only one question for this beautiful collection that adds beauty and iconic design elements to the timekeeping landscape of 2026: Will it eventually also come with mechanical movements?
