|
Changing Times
A watch
is not just for telling the time; a sparkling timepiece also signifies
heavy-duty status. With their classic cred already assured, major
brands are rolling out more contemporary designs for the
flush-with-cash younger consumer, and the young at heart.
French
luxury goods maker Hermes has its gaily colored scarfs and eponymous
bags named after onetime British and American starlets; we know that.
But it may come as a surprise to some that it also has beautifully
designed watches.
That
lack of recognition of its watch-making interests is not lost on Eric
Grellety Bosviel, the Asia Pacific managing director for the firm.
“People will mention our bags, our perfumes, our scarves, but only a
few will mention our watches,” he said in mid-June during a Jakarta
roadshow for the company’s precious timepieces.
“But we
are not brand new [to the sector]. We have been producing leather
straps and dials for 80 years and our own designs for the past 30
years.”
With
several of the firm’s accessories designers doing double duty by also
creating timepieces, the Frenchman says there is a unifying “marriage”
of styles among the company’s diverse products.
Hermes
Group’s new alliance with Swiss company Vaucher Manufacture Fleurier
may also help raise the profile of its timepieces. “We want to develop
this area to keep growing ... we always try to improve and upgrade
ourselves ...” Grellety Bosviel said.
The
highlight of the exhibition was the Kilim gold cuff watch, designed
for Hermes by Patrick Hardy, who does the namesake jewelry line.
Created exclusively in gold – take your pick of white, rose or yellow
– its slim, geometric design can be paved with more than 1,000
diamonds or, for the bashful, sans the sparkle.
All
those gems don’t come cheap; it’s a cool US$70,000 for those with easy
cash in hand (and, needless to say, mind-numbing for the rest of us).
Be warned that it also takes six months from placing an order until
you get to wrap that little custom-made number around your wrist.
Rolex,
the grandaddy of status-bearing timepieces, also is changing with the
times. Its
TUDOR
Sport and Classic collections, heading to these parts in August, are
designed with an “active, urban, vibrant lifestyle” in mind. And it’s
not just dazzling form without function; the Sport collection’s six
models for men and women include a self-winding mechanical movement to
keep wearers on time. That, after all, is what wearing a timepiece is
all about.
+ Bruce Emond
Home
| 
