Hermès looks to the moon at SIHH 2019

Hermès stayed faithful to both its horological ethos – that of telling time in whimsical ways – and its dedication to the night sky, with one of the coolest moonphases in recent memory.

Arceau l’Heure de la Lune features a pair of stationary mother-of-pearl moons, each with its own floating lacquer dials. As the moon goes through its lunar cycle, the watch dials mask the moons in the same form as the correlating lunar cycle.

Or in other words, if there’s a crescent moon in the sky the watch dials will obscure the moons on the dial in a similar fashion. Hermès takes things one further, however, by inverting both moons. The top one shows the southern hemisphere while the lower one depicts the northern hemisphere.

Finally, there is a subtle ode to Pegasus on the upper moot, a motif painted by artist and designer Dimitri Rybaltchenko (a work he calls “Pleine Lune” or “Full Moon”). It’s subtle and playful, making this watch in many ways a piece of art within a piece of art.

One of the dials features the hours and minutes, while the other counts the date. It’s powered by a highly unusual complication, the Hermès calibre H1837. The display module alone features more than 100 components, and it’s currently patent pending.