HANDS-ON: The Hermès Arceau L’heure de la lune

Felix Scholz

There’s an inherent romance in all mechanical wristwatches — a romance drawn largely from the fact that these painstakingly created devices are fundamentally anachronistic machines that have been superseded several times over. Yet, still they manage to survive and, indeed, thrive. 

And it might just be me, but this romance factor is more present than ever when it comes to watches with celestial complications because — and let’s be real here — no one *needs* a moonphase in 2019. This fact is why the people who design and create this very traditional complication tend to show a bit of creative license. Such license was the name of the game in the montres department of the grand maison Hermès when they created the Hermès Arceau L’heure de la lune, which offers not one, but two moon phases (southern and northern hemispheres, don’t you know). 

You see, rather than moving the moons around the dial, Hermès have made the dials do the work. The time and date subdials sit above the base dial (of either meteorite or aventurine, two appropriately celestial materials) and, over the course of a month (or 28.5 days if you’re a pedant) revolve around the dial, obscuring or revealing the mother-of-pearl moons as is appropriate. 

Ingenious design aside, the look of the Hermès Arceau L’heure de la lune is lovely. The Arceau case is as chic as ever, and the bright white dials, with delicate numerals, are glossy and crisp on the aventurine version, and more matt on the meteorite dial. Enchanting, and out of this world. 

Hermès Arceau L’heure de la lune price

Hermès Arceau L’heure de la lune, $37,310 AUD