The Hermès Cape Cod Chaîne d’ancre appears dressed in diamonds and obsidian to reveal new precious and distinctive facets of its personality. In 1991, the Cape Cod watch was born under the bold pencil strokes of Henri d’Origny. The designer was supposed to make it a square watch. His creative freedom decided that it would be «a square in a rectangle». Both impertinent and rigorous, the Hermès Cape Cod Chaîne d’ancre overturns codes and freely connects styles. Its original case is composed of two «anchor chain» half links, a motif created by Robert Dumas in 1938. The motif inspired by a boat chain is anchored on the dials of the Cape Cod and reveals a plurality of fanciful touches. This year, the Hermès Cape Cod is once again transformed: shimmering with diamonds and carved in obsidian stone – a grey vitreous volcanic rock – or sandblasted, gilded and lacquered, its distinctive graphic shape plays with materials and textures. Hovering between contrast and harmony, a first Hermès Cape Cod Chaîne d’ancre features a precious rose gold case set with 52 diamonds, framing an obsidian dial stands out, illuminated by interlaced links set with 181 diamonds. A second, smaller model matches the tone of its gemset steel case with the anthracite shades of the volcanic dial and gemset anchor chains. Finally, a third similarly small-sized rose gold version set with 46 diamonds is distinguished by its sand-blasted gold dial adorned with gemset anchor chains. Paired with a single- or double-tour strap in Chantilly-coloured or pearl grey alligator, crafted in the Hermès Horloger workshops, these new Cape Cod Chaîne d’ancre models display hours and minutes, swept over by slender gold or rhodium-plated hands.
The Hermès Cape Cod Chaîne d’ancre watch has been forming solid attachments for almost 30 years. Its story, all about links, began in 1991, when iconoclastic Hermès designer Henri d’Origny boldly sketched the outlines of a companion to the Cape Cod watch, an equally distinctive model named Nantucket.
