The automatic Hermes Arceau Temps Suspendu features a beautiful Time Suspended complication, is available in rose gold and steel and, what’s even more important, makes you want to rob a bank to get one. Isn’t it the acid test to detect a true work of art?
It looks like I am gradually falling in love with Hermes.
While the overwhelming majority of established fashion houses produce cheap, hideous (or plain dumb) models and sell them to the nouveau riche at sky-high prices in their boutiques, the French brand Hermes is serious about its watchmaking business.
Judging by the products they never fail to deliver, Hermes hires the best designers and the most qualified watchmakers in the business in order to create timepieces that look simple, yet refined and, well, expensive.
I raved about their 2011 Arceau Grande Lune collection. I am completely out of words with this new Hermes Arceau Temps Suspendu.
In two words, the gadget sports a Swiss-made self-winding movement, which is equipped with a complex 360° hour and minute retrograde system.
At a push of a button, which is located at 9 o’clock, you can “stop” the watch from making its hour and minute hands jump from their current positions to a slightly recessed Time Suspended zone at 12 o’clock. The retrograde date hand will be hidden altogether.
The hands may stay suspended for hours, days or even weeks, but the balance wheel will keep beating (if you won’t forget to wind it,) counting seconds and ready to instantaneously bring the hands to the positions they belong to.
Although the complication seems to have little practical use, there is a great therapeutic potential in this model. It may be of great value to neurotic people who just can’t stop checking the time while standing in line at check-in or talking to a particularly annoying person.
I would definitely love to get one myself, however, I guess that the Temps Suspendu will cost like a BMW X1 and that’s a lot of money. That’s a Hermes, after all*.
See also: Hermes Cape Cod Tonneau Bleu de Malte
* UPDATE ON PRICE: It’s been reported that the version of Arceau Temps Suspendu in a rose gold case will indeed be expensive and will retail €27,300. The one in stainless steel, however, will retail for €13,000, which is, while far from being ‘affordable’ is more or less bearable given the pedigree of the French fashion brand.
Photos: Hermes, @KewpieLovesYou
Hermes Arceau Temps Suspendu specification
Price: €27,300 (MSRP, version in 18-karat rose gold, limited to 174 individually numbered pieces) / €13,000 (MSRP, version in stainless steel, total production number not limited at all)
Movement: Automatic, 254 parts, created together with Agenhor, Geneva, Swiss Made
Functions: Retrograde hours, minutes and date; stop/start push-piece at 9 o’clock
Power reserve: 42 hours
Case: Stainless steel / 18-karat Rose gold
Bezel: Stainless steel / Rose gold
Shape: Round
Size: 43.00 mm
Dial: Opaline silvered / Black
Numerals: Arabic
Hands: Open-worked
Water resistance: 30 meters
Strap: Matt Havana brown or black alligator leather strap
Crystal: Sapphire
Back: Sapphire