It was shape that drove the development of the Cut, the women’s wristwatch recently introduced by Hermès.
“The transformation and the creation of the shape was really the starting point for me,” said Philippe Delhotal, director of creation at Hermès Horloger. “We didn’t want to go back to an icon of the maison — the stirrup-shape lugs for Arceau or something obvious with the anchor chain link on the Cape Cod.
“We really wanted to have something special and singular with its own personality.”
So Hermès created a shape all its own by taking four slivers off the sides of a round case, and then emphasized the result by polishing the bevels.
“We have this ambiguity between a circle — which is really perfect geometrically — and what is round,” Mr. Delhotal said. “When you ask a child to draw a round shape, it will also be very naïve and approximative and intuitive. It’s really this balance between the precision of the circle and this round shape, which is a bit intuitive with the cut edges.”
The 36-millimeter timepiece, which took three years to create, is the initial model in what Hermès intends as a new collection. It debuted at Watches and Wonders Geneva in four versions: stainless steel or a mix of steel and rose gold, both of which can be purchased with or without diamonds (from $6,725 to $21,900, and available in stores worldwide and online).
In recent years the French luxury house, founded in 1837 as a harness maker, has been developing its watch division, including the purchase of the dial maker Natéber in 2012 and the case manufacturer Joseph Érard in 2013. Its women’s timepieces include the dainty Faubourg, which debuted in 2014, and the Galop d’Hermès, created with the designer Ini Archibong and introduced in 2019.
