Pursuing the approach that led in 2008 to the birth of the Cape Cod Grandes Heures and its “time made-to-measure”, Hermès is introducing a new dream complication that tames time in order to make it intensely personal. The Arceau watch, created in 1978 by Henri d’Origny, is equipped with a new module developed in cooperation with Agenhor, Geneva, and its founder Jean-Marc Wiederrecht, a grand specialist of retrograde time indications. This unconventional complication reflects the Hermès philosophy of time: a playful and singular time to dream.
Simply pressing the pusher at 9 o’clock brings the hour and minute hands to a halt at around noon, while entirely concealing the date hand. Time is thus suspended – or rather its display, since the mechanism itself continues keeping track of standard time, like an orchestra playing backstage while the protagonists of a play remain motionless.
Two minutes, three hours, five days or several weeks later, whenever you so wish, another press on the pusher repositions the three hands in their rightful place and time, no longer suspended, resumes its steady sweep around the dial. This concept involves a triple retrograde system including two 360° functions (for the hour and minute hands), and represents an impressive world first duly protected by two patents.