Hermes' Immediate Watch Hit
By Godfrey Deeny
December 03, 2003 - New York
Even before it appeared on any highly stylized shelf, Hermes new limited edition platinum Dressage watch had been sold out.
Priced at $24,000 a watch, with production limited to just 75 examples, the $24,000 chronometers were “pre-sold” several weeks before the new watches from luxury’s classiest label had time to be displayed in any of Hermes boutiques.
“Maybe we should have produced a few more!” conceded a smiling Guillaume de Seynes, president of La Montre Hermes, the company’s watch division, at a party Tuesday night to celebrate the label’s most sophisticated watch to date.
A slew of socialites, aficionados of the well-heeled and simple, pampered blondes enjoyed whiskey or cocktails in Cristalleries Saint Louis cut glasses – another label owned by Hermes – in the brand’s Madison Avenue boutique.
“We’re very happy by how much enthusiasm there has been for this watch. We named it Dressage to underline its exact steps in construction and sense of precision, just like dressage itself” expanded de Seynes, the Swiss-based nephew of Jean Louis Dumas, Hermes long-time president.
The 75 platinum chronometers also celebrate the 75th anniversary of the first watch sold under the Hermès brand in its Paris flagship on the Faubourg Saint-Honoré. Long associated with equestrian sports, Hermes new watch has a rounded dial elongated by two stirrup shapes, with a strap reminiscent of stirrup leathers.
Thankfully, if you move quickly you can still manage to acquire before Christmas the admirably cool Dressage in either pink, white or traditional gold, which will set you back somewhere between $13,000 and $15,400.
Only then will you be suitably dressed.