Introducing: The Soothing Simplicity Of The Slim d'Herms Squelette Lune

June 24, 2021

In a world where high end luxury in general, and high end watchmaking in particular, are dominated by multibillion dollar publicly traded groups like Swatch, Richemont, and LVMH, Herms has continued to maintain both its independence as a company, and its independence in terms of its design vision. This plays out as much in its watchmaking as anything else. Herms timepieces, with their emphasis on elegance of execution and attention to detail, are generally immediately recognizable. Its most distinctive family of watches are the Slim d'Herms models. These have in common a thin profile, tapering lugs, and thin bezels, combined with a unique typeface designed by Philippe Apeloig. The latest addition to the collection is the Slim d'Herms Squelette Lune. This is a rare occurrence of an openworked watch in the Slim dHermes line, and the watch uses a new caliber, H953, with a double moonphase display. The movement is selfwinding via a microrotor and has the same basic architecture as many of the microrotor movements from Vaucher Manufacture Fleurier (Herms has owned 25% of VMF since 2006) and this particular caliber is a new one for Herms. Its being used for the first time, in the Squelette Lune. The watch is 39.5mm in diameter, with a titanium case, platinum bezel, and white gold crown, and is priced at $20,550. What We Think Were big fans of the Slim d'Herms collection at HODINKEE (enough to have done a well-received limited edition with them) and the Squelette Lune is both an extension of, and an interesting departure from, the Slim d'Herms aesthetic. Pretty much every Slim d'Herms watch is clean and uncluttered. The busiest theyve ever gotten is a perpetual calendar and even there, the general composition and legible but unobtrusive typeface kept things more minimalist than not (at least, by the standards of a traditional display perpetual calendar). The Squelette de Lune is a departure in that skeletonized watches arent particularly known for presenting an elegantly spare face to the world. Traditional openworking, in which you take an existing movement and remove as much metal as you can without fatally weakening it, is usually slightly fussy-feeling. This is a problem Herms has addressed in the Squelette Lune by careful use of a fairly close palette of greys, blacks, and polished steel surfaces. The shapes of the opened-up plates and bridges are remarkably harmonious for an openworked watch C in fact, I'd say they're remarkably harmonious, period. Herms has also kept the high resolution moon disks from the Arceau L'Heure De La Lune watches, albeit miniaturized to fit the rest of the composition and that unexpected, contrasting element of photorealism keeps the whole thing from seeming too predictable (always a risk when hewing to a minimalist aesthetic in watch design). As with the rest of the Slim d'Herms collection, this watch has style to burn, an interesting and unusual movement, and an air of effortlessness in execution. Its quite a nifty thing to have on the wrist, and in its accomplished take on the idiom of openworking, a gentle reminder that a considered evolution beats an overwrought revolution every time (at least, in watch design).All photos, Tiffany Wade. The Slim d'Herms Squelette Lune: case, bead-blasted grade 5 titanium, 39.5mm in diameter. Platinum bezel, white gold crown. PVD blued hands. Movement, caliber H953, self-winding microrotor with double moonphase display. Price, $20,550. See more at Hermes.com. Shop Talk The HODINKEE Shop is an Authorized Retailer of Herms watches; explore our collection right here.