Hermès is on a tear this year, like a runaway horse pulling a carriage full of the GPHG awards it racked up a few weeks ago. The brand won both the Mens’ and Ladies’ complications categories with their respective Arceau Le Temps Voyageur models. It still may come as a surprise to a lot of the watch community, however, that the maison has so many complicated offerings in its catalogs that many haven’t even made it to its website.
Case-in-point: Hermès Arceau Lift Tourbillon Répétition Minutes So Black. Though not GPHG award-nominated (I’d imagine it would be in the running for any “longest name” category) it’s still a technical marvel. In this case, the achievement is not just making a watch with a tourbillon and a minute repeater, rather, it’s the fact the designers have paid homage to the brand’s heritage, showing their confidence that Hermès can hold its own against the big names of the watch industry. Issued in a numbered 24-piece limited series, the Arceau Lift tourbillon répétition minutes so black watch by Hermès features a black grand feu enamel dial revealing part of its captivating mechanism It combines two magnificent horological complications. The complex mechanism of the double-gong minute repeater can be admired through the horse-shaped dial cut-out. The flying tourbillon is revealed through a round aperture at 6 o’clock.
The double-H tourbillon structure of the Hermès Arceau Lift Tourbillon Répétition Minutes So Black watch is inspired by an emblematic motif of the Hermès boutique in the Faubourg Saint-Honoré in Paris. This distinctive design surmounting the carriage and barrel bridge echoes the shape of the wrought iron adorning the entrance, railings, staircase and elevator of the Parisian establishment.
Hermès expands its iconic Arceau watch family by revealing a high-complication watch with flying tourbillon and minute repeater mechanisms.
The timeless silhouette of this Arceau watch takes the form of a round case with stirrup-like asymmetrical lugs. A one-of-a-kind model in rose or white gold, the Arceau Lift tourbillon répétition minutes features a white or Abyss blue-lacquered dial. A horse-shaped cut-out in the lacquered dial reveals the Hermès Arceau Lift Tourbillon Répétition Minutes movement. Framed by the equestrian profile cut-out hugging the curves of the case, the complexity of the double-gong minute-repeater mechanism is captivating. This traditional horological complication is combined here with another horological exception – the flying tourbillon – coiled inside the horse’s neck and visible through a round aperture at 6 o’clock. Forming a double H, the architecture of the tourbillon is inspired by mot emblematic of the Hermès boutique on the Faubourg Saint-Honoré in Paris. This design crowning the tourbillon carriage and barrel bridge picks up the pattern of the artistic wrought ironwork adorning the entrance, railings, staircase and lift at the Parisian establishment.
Visible through the dial cut-outs and the sapphire crystal case-back, the new mechanical hand-wound movement H1924 from Manufacture Hermès emits the clear chime of its minute repeater from a white or rose gold case measuring 43 mm in diameter. Hermès Arceau Lift Tourbillon Répétition Minutes Re-designed to incorporate two major Haute Horlogerie complications, this precious case was designed in the Hermès Horloger workshops, as were the lacquered dial and matt black alligator strap.
