Crystal Art

WOW visits Cristalleries de Saint-Louis where the millefiori dials are produced for Hermès

- Ruckdee Chotjinda

If you agree that all watches need to stand for something, you should be able to appreciate the qualities imbued in each timepiece, even if the watch in question is not meant for your wrist. Such is the case of this writer and the millefiori-dialled watches from Hermès. I love these cute little creations but they are not for me – there are other Hermès watches I am keener to spend on. Still, I have always been promoting the Millefiori watches from Hermès as a highly characteristic option and am interested to learn more about them.

That chance to see the processes involved in making Hermès crystal art dials came to me last year. World of Watches Thailand was invited to join a press tour that covered various sites involved in the watchmaking activities of La Montre Hermès in France and Switzerland. One of the locations in the itinerary included the Cristalleries de Saint-Louis in the northeastern French commune of Saint-Louislès-Bitche.

A journey to Saint-Louis-lès-Bitche is long but rather straightforward. You only need to take a 2-hour TGV ride from Paris to Strasbourg and continue the rest of the journey by car or bus for about two more hours. Here, in this quiet village, a group of dedicated craftsmen and artisans continue to practice ancestral skills passed from one generation to the next. It is worth noting that many of these artisans are holders of the vaunted Meilleurs Ouvriers de France medal and that their trade is indisputably the biggest draw of this little hamlet of just over 512 people.