LIKE NO OTHER

With its horological triumphs, Hermès has truly come into its own as a watchmaking maison. In this exclusive interview with Esquire Singapore, CEO of Hermès Horloger, Laurent Dordet sheds some light on his timepieces' rising stardom and the importance of being different.

- Celine Yap

Five years ago, if you walked into an Hermès store, chances were that you wanted a pair of leather shoes, a bag, or perhaps a belt or wallet. You knew that Hermès makes more than just leather goods; you also knew that they have a big collection of timepieces. But when it comes to Hermès, all that you—and everybody else— wanted was their leather.

Five years on, today, people are making a beeline for Hermès expressly to acquire a luxury timepiece. “More and more, we start to see watch collectors and watch lovers who know Hermès but were not yet [timepiece] customers of Hermès coming into the stores,” CEO of Hermès Horloger, Laurent Dordet tells me at the recently opened store in New York’s Madison Avenue.

“Sometimes they are here to inquire [sic] about a new watch not even our sales associates have heard of or seen.”

Dordet is on the precipice of a new era at Hermès, and the gamechanger that set all the wheels in motion for the Maison was the Arceau L’Heure de la Lune of 2019. That year, the watch was nominated for and received the Calendar and Astronomy Award prize at the Grand Prix de Haute Horlogerie de Genève, which was basically the Academy Awards for luxury high watchmaking.