With the new Arceau Millefiori collection of watches Hermès conjures up perfect blend of watchmaking and glassmaking. Thousands of delicate glass flowers, beautifully arranged on the round dials make checking the time seductive and exciting experience. Wristwatches and pocket watches made for this new collection are equipped with a manufactured caliber made in-house at the Hermès Atelier in Switzerland. The brand uses the savoir-faire of the Cristalleries Royales de Saint-Louis (one of its subsidiaries) to create a series of unusual timepieces.
Known as “Millefiori” motif (or “thousand flowers” in Italian), this decorative technique was developed in the nineteenth century to produce magnificent and extremely colourful paperweights. Basically, it all starts with thin crystal canes coloured by enamel that resemble barley sugar candy canes. They are carefully put together to form rich and lively flower motifs that will only be revealed once the ensemble is cut into sections. The exact same technique was used by Hermès to create the dial of two Millefiori wristwatches, a men’s model as well as a ladies’ version, and two beautiful pocket watches with a grey or red millefiori enamel cover.
Pocket watch comes in a 48mm white gold case with a Millefiori dust cover and a Hermès self-winding movement with a power reserve of 50 hours, while the wristwatch is available in 34 mm and 41 mm white gold case, featuring vividly colored Millefiori dials, including a pink version offset by 60 diamonds on the bezel. Both models come with splendidly adorned in-house self-winding movements, which are visible through the sapphire crystal caseback.
