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Hermès reveiled a new amazing timepiece in their theme Le Temps de l’Imaginaire.. It is called Dressage L’Heure Masquée, hidden hour in French. And again, it is purely poetry. Here time is translated into an imaginary and poetic approach. Almost philosophical. Hermes pushes the interaction between the watch and the owner of the watch. The person can play with his timepiece and create a special relationship. In 2011, Hermes won the Grand Prix de l’Horlogerie Geneve with Le Temps Suspendu. The concept was that the watch owner could stop the time whenever he wanted. With this new launch, it is the opposite, the mirror complication. It is also the idea of “time on demand”.

hermes Heure masquee

Hermès already surprised us last year with the amazing Arceau, Le temps suspendu. This time, Hermes, as a magician of time, will help you picking up your chosen moments. How? By hidding from you the part of time that does not interest you. Basically the hours hand will be hidden beneath the minutes hand. You will choose to press on the crown button in order to reveal the exact time. It is as beautiful as complex to achieve. You will need a movement that will display a hidden time and still keep tracking the real time, so that when you press the crown, the mechanism will then liberate the hours hand to its real position. Sounds simple but it is a true watch-making masterpiece.

Caliber H1925
This is how Hermès explains the functionality from the mechanism point of view: “This playful stage-setting is orchestrated by the ingenious interaction of the rack, pinion and gear trains. When stimulated, 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 push button opposite the crown”.
Dressage L'heure Masquée detail

Hermes L'heure masquée zoom

The beauty of a Luxury house as Hermès is that they found their own positioning in a highly competitive watch industry. While several watch-makers sometimes forget that we do not only sell watches, we also sell dreams, Hermès is probably the most creative watch-maker in this field. The simplicity and the beauty of each timepiece equals the reputation of the Brand.
Hermes ad for Dressage

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Hermes Dressage heure masquée picture
And the most impressive part is the way every single Hermes employee is capable to tell you the full story with passion and confidence. This reflects the fact that all the work related to watch-making is at the state of art.

Here is a video with Mr. Philippe Delhotal, Creative director of La Montre Hermes about the 2014 novelties.

This incredible complication took 3 years to be developed by Vaucher Manufacture, in which Hermès is shareholder. Pressing the crown frees the hour hand hidden under the hand of minutes. Thanks to an ingenious system of two coupled cams that can store the current time, it is then placed on the right index. GMT function, second time zone on a disc placed behind a cover which unveals when you press the crown (frees the time display on the 2 time) correction GMT by repeatedly pressing the button located on the left of the case. The movement is 32.5mm with 95 components. The case has one of the emblematic shapes of Hermès.

Hermes-Heure-masquee-details

Only 2’000 pieces were produced in steel and 500 units in Rose Gold. When Hermès plays with time, you can do whatever you want with it, either stop it or hide it. That’s the beauty of it. Check the brand official website for more information about the new Baselworld models. https://www.hermes.com.

Sébastien Eich and LA

 

Info sourced at Hermes official presentation at Baselworld 2014. All content is copyrighted with no reproduction rights available.