Crystal artistry
In the unending search for novel materials to enliven its timepieces, La Montre Hermès, the horology arm of the luxury French maison, has brought together the rarefied worlds of art glassmaking and haute horlogerie in the Arceau Millefiori collection. A showcase of superlative craftsmanship, highlighting yet again Hermes’s artisanal approach to production, the collection features dials and covers inspired by 19th-century paperweights handcrafted by Cristalleries Royales de Saint-Louis, an Hermès-owned crystal and glass art specialist with roots dating back to 1586.
“Hermes as our owner allows us to concentrate on quality,” says master glassmaker Xavier Zimmermann. “We have a 60 per cent rejection rate of our finished products.” Creating crystal works that would fit in the scale of timepieces meant having to miniaturise everything. “It was a completely new direction for us. That is why it took us a year and a half to make it technically possible,” reveals Zimmermann.
To create the signature millefiori (Italian for ‘a thousand flowers’) motif, glassmakers fashion colourful canes or baguettes out of crystal and enamel that are then cut into 10mm portions and arranged to form a bed of flowers. A clear crystal dome seals the pieces together, and it is only during the final cutting stage that the crystal reveals the full wealth of its pattern and the unique beauty of the flowerbed that will become the dial or cover of one of the Arceau models.
In the Arceau Pocket Millefiori, the most exclusive model in the collection, the crystal piece serves as the pocket watch’s cover, which Zimmermann says took a bit more effort to produce due to the half-moon shapes in the motif. The generously sized 48mm white gold timepiece features a shaded grey enamel dial with white gold slanting numerals, and is powered by the self-winding H1837 movement equipped with a 50-hour power reserve. Priced at RM567,100, the watch comes with a cord-strap and pouch in matt graphite alligator.
