Hermès Paris gallops towards the upper reaches of our must-have wristwatch list with the Dressage, L’heure masquée
Hermès Paris are one of the world’s most prominent luxury brands. Originally starting life as a harness workshop in Paris, the company evolved into the luxury powerhouse it is today with almost 10,000 employees and a turnover in excess of €2 billion.
The company has 14 product divisions covering areas such as leather, fashion wear, footwear, tableware, decorative arts and scarves, a particular product range that is often synonymous with the Hermès name. Another area that the brand are highly skilled in and is often overlooked is watches and jewellery, this is yet another area where the company truly excels. For this article, we will be looking at their latest horological offering that takes the form of the Dressage, L’heure masquée.
Firstly lets discuss initial visual impact of this timepiece. The Dressage, L’heure masquée is a classically styled timepiece which is always a winner with the editorial team at Luxurious Magazine. We understand that this particular collection took three years to develop in-house which we don’t doubt as visually the watch is quite different to most of the watches we get to see. The Dressage, L’heure masquée has a number of interesting interactive elements which include the ability to see the calendar numerals move on the exposed rear of the watch when pressing the pushbutton. Another wonderful touch is the hour hand that hides behind the constantly moving minute hand, only revealing itself at the push of a button and as soon as the button is released, it hides away once more. We also like the rose gold numerals set within circular recesses, this small touch adds to the overall visual impact of the watch and really make the whole combination ‘pop’.
All of these interactive elements are orchestrated by the ingenious interaction of the rack, pinion and gear trains. When put in motion, the hour cam releases from its hiding place the hand that dutifully appears to perform its role of pointing to the correct hour on the dial. The dual-time indication is directly driven by the base movement and adjustable via the pushbutton opposite the crown.
The Dressage, L’heure masquée is powered by the Hermès mechanical self-winding movement H1925 and is of a decent size – 40.5mm x 38.4mm. To encase a watch of this size takes a not inconsiderable 85g of 18k rose gold. Add the havana alligator strap and the exclusivity of only 500 pieces being manufactured, it should be one of those watches that would look very much at home in any quality watch collection.
In summary: The Dressage, L’heure masquée from Hermès Paris is a watch of style and elegance and we like it!
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