According to Philippe Delhotal, Creative Director of La Montre Hermès, the Slim d’Hermès collection, launched in 2015, “was born from encounters between the Maison, designers and artisans.” This elegant piece strips everything down to the essentials: pure lines, refined case, generous dial and ultra-thin Manufacture movement. The timepiece also features a distinctive new typeface for the hour markers, designed by typographer Philippe Apeloig.
The Parisian Maison is expanding the collection with a new model whose dial is executed in grand feu enamel, a classic watchmaking technique that requires perfect mastery of demanding yet delicate gestures.
The first stage of the process is to place two tiny “feet” on a copper plate, which are subsequently used to attach the dial to the movement. After placing the plate on a curved wooden base, the artisan rubs the surface to condense, stiffen and pare it down to a final thickness of just 0.2 mm, which gives it the robustness required to avoid any warping that would cause the glass enamel to crack. The copper disc is then coated on both sides with a flammable liquid, and dusted with white enamel powder. The dial is fired in a kiln at 830°C, which is what gives the technique the name of “grand feu” (great heat). This entire operation is repeated five or six times, until the resulting enamel is intensely white, smooth and shiny. The white enamel appears on all three levels of the dial: a first circle bearing the hour markers, a second in the centre and a tiny small seconds subdial at 6 o’clock. The next stage is to transfer the hour-markers onto the white disc using black enamel paste. Finally, the artisan perfects the circumference of the enamelled disc, hand-filing the edges to create the necessary angles to ensure the three dial elements dovetail perfectly together.
The Slim d’Hermès Email Grand Feu comes in a 39.5 mm rose gold case with a matt Havana alligator strap crafted in the Hermès leather workshops. At the heart of the Slim d’Hermès Email Grand Feu beats the H1950 ultra-thin movement made by Vaucher Manufacture Fleurier (VMF). The movement, which beats at 21,600 vibrations per hour, is equipped with a tungsten micro-rotor to shave precious millimetres off the depth while ensuring efficient winding and a 42-hour power reserve. Like all Hermès movements the Calibre H1950 is decorated with a “sprinkling of Hs” motif, and the bridge is hand-chamfered.
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