Hermès : A souvenir of close ties and intensely personal wear

In The Pocket

Case : palladium 950, transparent caseback Diameter : 40 mm (49 with the leather strap) Movement : mechanical self-winding (Vaucher calibre, 50-hour power reserve), satin-brushed bridges and oscillating weight, circular-grained and snailed mainplate Functions : hours, minutes, small seconds at 3 o’clock Dial : grained silver-toned Water resistance : 30m Strap: interchangeable calfskin strap in ebony Barenia calfskin, ebony Barenia calfskin cord-strap Limited series : 24

On this photo dating from 1912, Jacqueline Hermès wears the ingenious leather strap encasing a pocket-watch designed by her father. A century later, Hermès draws upon its historical expertise in re-issuing an exclusive limited series called In The Pocket. The 40 mm-diameter palladium case housing a self-winding Vaucher movement is delicately clad in Barenia leather. Composed of two separate parts, the boucleteau (the longer 6 o’clock section) and the sanglon (the shorter 12 o’clock section) this amazingly technical strap comprising three separate layers required ten days of hand craftsmanship to make, not to mention the soaking and drying stages. Cut, split again, sanded, stuck, stitched, marked with a compass, hallmarked and sewn according to the historical Hermès saddle-stitching technique, the leather also calls for hammering the stitching, marking a furrow between the sewing line, along with dyeing and polishing with bees’ wax. The hand-crafted complexity of this process is equalled only by the understated elegance of a grained silver-toned dial.

 

Brice Lechevalier is editor-in-chief of GMT and Skippers, which he co-founded in 2000 and 2001 respectively. He has also been CEO of WorldTempus since it joined the GMT Publishing stable, of which he is director and joint shareholder. In 2012 he created the Geneva Watch Tour, and he has been an advisor to the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève since 2011. Also closely involved in sailing, he has published the magazine of the Société Nautique de Genève since 2003, and was one of the founders of the SUI Sailing Awards in 2009 and the Concours d’Elégance for motor boats at the Cannes Yachting Festival in 2015.

Review overview
})(jQuery)