By Harlan Chapman-Green
Hermès is a less known brand of clothing, jewellery and watches, but its relative obscurity doesn’t detract from its talent in the art of luxury, the only companies I can think that would match them are Fendi and Van Cleef & Arpels, but they don’t cover the industry, as well as Hermès, does. Hermès watches are quite rare in the world and are often overlooked in favour of Jaeger-LeCoultre or Blancpain, but take the time to pay attention to Hermès and you’ll be pleasantly surprised.
One such example of this is the newest creation for the Only Watch auction this year, the In the Pocket watch. The inspiration for the current generation came from the early twentieth-century porte-oignon piece which was a gift to Jacqueline Hermès, an active horse rider, from her father. It meant for her that she could be active and keep her pocket watch with her at all times. The current design came about in 2012 and was then given the name “In the Pocket”.
The new timepiece is made of 18K rose gold and is paired with a black dial with a subsidiary seconds dial placed at the 4 O’clock position. The pocket watch itself is fairly sized at 40mm in diameter but this extends quite dramatically to 49mm when the pocket watch is placed inside the ‘wrist holster’. You’ll also be pleased to know that the movement inside the watch is made entirely in-house by Hermès themselves, it’s known as the calibre H1837, is automatically powered and features 28 jewels with a 50 hour power reserve.
The In the Pocket watch, along with the Perrelet I looked at in my last Only Watch article, and the other 42 watches going to the charity will be sold in a big auction on the 7th November this year in Geneva. The proceeds of this charity auction are going to a charity which aims to defeat Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy once and for all. It’s truly wonderful that so many luxury brands such as Hermès, Patek Philippe, Vacheron Constantin, Jacob & Co, Girard-Perregaux and even Louis Vuitton have all banded together to do their part. If only we could do this with many more charities than just one, not only would we have a very affluent watch industry but also there would be a lot more funding for charities which may otherwise struggle to find the funds needed for their cause.
Can you guess how much the Hermès In the Pocket watch will sell for when it goes under the hammer in November? We’ll let you know here at WristReview as soon as we find out. For more info, please visit hermes.com
HARLAN CHAPMAN-GREEN – CONTRIBUTING EDITOR
A keen bass guitar player, Harlan enjoys all the perks modern watchmaking technologies the industry has to offer. Although you might catch him sampling Omegas or the Rolex, Harlan loves all things Haute Horology, with his three favourite brands being Breguet, A.Lange & Söhne and Vacheron Constantin. He hopes to study timekeeping more in depth someday and will never be able to thank his father enough for introducing him to the industry. Read his articles here.
