The height of ingenuity. For decades, watchmakers have been creating complications of use to travellers, and it seemed there was little left to invent. And yet we find ourselves marvelling at a completely new and remarkably poetic way to indicate the hour in two time zones.
A Family Affair
It’s a Hermès watch, and because of this we know it will be different from anything else. The question being, how, exactly. The more curious among us already had an inkling of what to expect. After L’Heure de la Lune, it made sense that Hermès should make new use of its module, developed by Jean-François Mojon at Chronode. A clue, then, but nothing conclusive.
Now all is revealed. This new watch is indeed fitted with the aforementioned module. It also bears an evocative name: Arceau Le Temps Voyageur - “travelling time”. It’s a nice touch from a company that has spent the last two centuries advocating exploration, travel, discovery and curiosity with the utmost elegance. The stage is set.
Hermès began life as a saddlemaker at a time when travel was on horseback. Thierry Hermès, born in the Age of Enlightenment, left his innkeeper parents’ home on foot. Émile Hermès, in 1898, journeyed all the way to Moscow to fulfil an order placed for the Tsar’s imperial guard, and from there to St. Petersburg. Despite his parents’ reticence, Émile would also travel to Austria, Germany, Belgium, Holland and Poland. In 1968 Jean-Louis Dumas drove a 2CV to Kathmandu via Kabul. Just a few years later, in 1975, Hermès opened its first boutique in what was the new heart of travel: an airport. Now history continues with… Le Temps Voyageur.
Intuitive, Self-evident
A watch whose functioning can only be understood with the help of photos, films and texts should be approached with a certain amount of caution. Horology is an art that needs no explanation. It is intuitive, intimate, self-evident.
Arceau Le Temps Voyageur is no exception. At 12 o’clock: an aperture for home time. In the centre: a travel module which, when positioned opposite the reference city for the time zone you are travelling in, shows local time by hour and minute hands. It’s that simple.
Beauty Secrets
We can, of course, go further and reveal the watch’s intimacy. “Le Temps Voyageur” isn’t just its name. It is the physical and literal translation of the central module that actually does travel around a section of the dial. This section is engraved with the imaginary continents of a planet which the French graphic designer Jérôme Colliard created for a Hermès silk scarf, “Planisphère d’un monde équestre”. A metaphor for Hermès’ connections with the equestrian world, this giant terrestrial globe was designed for the 2016 Saut Hermès showjumping competition in Paris. The module, that of L’Heure de la Lune, assembles 122 components. We can look forward to two variations: one measuring 41mm in platinum, completed by a titanium bezel with a mat black DLC finish, and another measuring 38mm in steel.
