Hermès Arceau Le temps voyageur

Hermès’ new Arceau Le temps voyageur watch is a finely calibrated expression of the joy of wanderlust.

Perhaps one of the most fascinating things about time as a concept is that it is entirely invented by humans. Yet as a practical unit of measure, it’s inextricably linked to our experience of space. We know it takes X number of minutes to walk somewhere, we know a drive to a specific location is Y hours. It’s also instrumental to the way we navigate the world, courtesy of the various time zones. This philosophy of time, space and travelis explored in the latest timepiece from Hermès, the Arceau Le temps voyageur with its world time complication.

The Arceau Le temps voyageur, first revealed at this year’s Watches and Wonders summit in Geneva, combines one of the brand’s most familiar watches – the classic Arceau – with that same spirit of travel, explains Philippe Delhotal, creative and development director of Hermès Horloger. The handsome yet delicately worked new complication found in this addition to the Arceau family speaks to perhaps the one thing many of us missed most in recent years: the freedom of travel.

Phillippe Delhotal, Creative and Development Director of Hermès Horloger.

The sense of wanderlust that Arceau Le temps voyageur expresses, Delhotal says, is something that has underpinned the maison from its beginnings as a maker of bespoke harnesses and saddlery. “When we talk about travel, that means crossing countries and time zones. So we started to think about a new expression of universal time, of world time,” he says of the ideas that inspired the timepieces. This thinking, he says, then led to a reimagining of the technical component of interpreting and the way of reading world time, as well as an aesthetic element. “We already had the experience of the peripheral satellites developed with Chronode for the Arceau L’heure de la lune model. However, we needed to consider not only a new technical answer, but also an aesthetic one that would enable anyone to travel through the moving time display.”

Sitting within the boldly asymmetrical case of the Arceau le Temps Voyageur is a gravitational counter that floats over continents, moving from city to city and their individual time zones. This travelling time mechanism, created exclusively for Hermès, traverses the 24 time zones marked around the edges of a circular disc that forms the horizon of an inner world. To discover the time in a specific destination, all the wearer need do is press the pusher to rotate the hour/minute subdial until it reaches the desired city marked on the outer rim. The hands on the mobile subdial will automatically adjust to the location that the subdial points to via a subtle red marker.

Yet rather than recreate the literal world for the face of the watch, the inner universe of the Le temps voyageur is an imaginary one, inspired by the Planisphere d’un monde équestre silk scarf designed by French graphic designer Jérôme Colliard. This in turn was inspired by the giant globe Colliard created for the maison during the 2016 Saut Hermès showjumping competition in Paris. Equestrian terms also mark the geography of the fantastical landscapes. It comes in two colourways: a black, 41mm with platinum case and a blue, 38mm with a steel case, or set with 78 diamonds.

Below the surface, however, is where that adventurous spirit truly finds its wings. One of the challenges the maison faced in developing Arceau Le temps voyageur was maintaining that experience of signature Hermès lightness while housing the intricacy of the complication. The stunningly slender 4.4mm case meant the integration of three differentials in a rotating frame for the local time display was a major challenge, says Delhotal. “Given the complexity of the mechanism, the management of corrections and shock-resistance safety systems also required many hours of research and development.”

Hermès called in Jean-François Mojon of Chronode, the Swiss firm that specialises in creating complications and movements requiring an extra level of intricacy. Mojon had helped develop the award-winning Arceau L’heure de la lune, which also incorporated the floating satellite feature. For the Arceau Le temps voyageur, he created a 122-component module that seamlessly drives the functionality of the watch and has been integrated into the H1837 mechanical self-winding movement.

Jean-François Mojon, Founder of Chronode.

“I think the most challenging point was to respect the total thickness,” Mojon says. “Of course, for the overall design of the watch, but it was important to keep the thickness at a certain level.”

In the world of watchmaking, every millimetre is the equivalent of an additional floor of your home. Or, at the least, a mezzanine level. To achieve the impossible, Mojon designed the module as a series of inclined wheels, saving 0.3 to 0.4mm. This very subtle shift, from level to incline, helped him ensure the slenderness of Arceau Le temps voyageur. Perhaps the only time “flat earth” is an acceptable concept.

In order to ensure the watch remained as slender as possible, a “thin homokinetic mechanism for kinematic transmission was used between the minute of the basic movement and the eccentric minute of the module,” says Mojon. “We used a fixed reference to maintain the orientation of the local time dial via a crown with internal teeth on the periphery. This reduced the thickness in the centre which is already very condensed. Plus, use of a planetary gear motion work with a small volume within the satellite and merging the dial base and dial into a single component.””

With no visible additional screws or pinions, Arceau Le temps voyageur is a marvel of technical precision, so streamlined it could be argued that with its binary modality it is closer to dual time than traditional world time. While still carrying a certain robustness in the details, the watch has an overall delicacy that makes it comfortably genderless, something Delhotal believes is increasingly in demand. “Absolutely, there is less difference between men’s and women’s styles as there are less codes and the time has become a bit more easygoing, décontracté,” he says. “I really appreciate this, as everyone can choose what they like, without any obligation according to their gender.”