RECOMMENDED READING: How Hermès got away from LVMH – and thrived
Editor’s note: How did Hermès not only survive, but manage to thrive after resisting a takeover bid from LVMH? This story tells the tale. And leaves out what might be the best bit for us, as watch lovers. Which is Hermès’ ongoing ascendancy in watchmaking. Who could forget the extraordinary Arceau L’heure de la lune to name just one? In the autumn of 2010 Le Tout-Paris of business braced for the sad, if predictable, end of an era. After 173 years and six generations, Hermès, a purveyor of handbags to bankers and neckties to their husbands, was to become part of LVMH. The champagne-to-evening-gowns mastodon, home to Louis Vuitton and Christian Dior, among many others, had disclosed a stake of 17 per cent and rising. Bernard Arnault, LVMH’s boss, with a knack for closing in on companies he admires, had only to pick off a few Hermès’ heirs ready to cash out. Bankers assumed the wolf in cashmere would take mere weeks to gobble up his elegant prey. Fast forward to autumn 2020, and the various descendants of Thierry Hermès not only still control their family’s firm, they have beaten LVMH at its own game. One of their own,…
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There are certain projects that draw you in from the minute they commence. When Michael Friedman, the Head of Complications at Audemars Piguet, and his team floated the idea of a round table on Zoom with collector and watch dealer Eric Ku on the subject of a watch I find insanely compelling – the [Re]master01 Selfwinding Chronograph – it took me no time at all to jump. Hell yes, we were in. But before you jump in, may I offer a serving suggestion? Clear your diary for the next hour (and four minutes). Sit somewhere comfortable. Don’t grab a drink, grab the ingredients of your drink, too. The ice, the lot. Because this is as close to Joe Rogan, or a podcast, as we’ve ever gone. It’s all about the incidental conversation as much as it is about the key points. However you consume it, do so as responsibly or as irresponsibly as you like, and enjoy it as much as we did making it. These are the elements I found most unusual, and downright spicy, about the prospect: It would be a long-form project. No time limits. No stage-managed script. Limited editing. “Andrew, we want to tell the story…
Some Friday Wind Downs are long, some have a point, and others are just the last thing standing between me and a cold, cold beer. That’s a dangerous place to be at the best of times — in Australia we talk about “murdering” a beer, we don’t mess around — but after a week like this, it’s truly ill-advised. Why? Because I’m excited! In just over three hours, we’ll be hitting the button on a video project with Audemars Piguet that is one of the most significant and substantial of my time in watches. It stars collector and watch dealer Eric Ku, as well as Head of Complications at Audemars Piguet, Michael Friedman, and what is vying to be my favourite watch release of the year, the glorious [Re]master01 Selfwinding Chronograph by Audemars Piguet. I want to get a few pre-games in before the drop, so, if you’ll excuse me … Hope to join you watching it all over again in an hour and a half! Between now and then, enjoy the most popular stories of the week. TAG shows off its elegant new racer TAG Heuer has just unveiled the new Carrera Elegant collection, adding another feather to the Carrera…
Editor’s note: We published this story at the height of Stranger Things mania, but it’s just as fun to check in on anytime for ’80s kids like me. Well, fun? Depends how well you deal with the flashbacks… The ’80s were Nerd City, peppered with popped polo shirts and pie-crust collars, Slime, The Breakfast Club, pommes noisettes, Pop Rocks candy and brine shrimp pets masquerading as Sea-Monkey kits. Against this neon, fad-filled haze emerges the ’80s saving graces – the best pop music in history and watches that either embraced new technology or new money. Here’s 11 (see what we did there) watches we’d be happy to see in season two. Swatch Watch – 1983 The simple plastic quartz Swatch flipped the way we looked at watches on its head, bringing a sense of play to the fore, and decreeing them style consumables. It was a democratic move away from Swiss watches predicated on careful craftsmanship to be cherished for a lifetime. Swatch meant there was a colour and design for every personality. Casio G-Shock (DW-5000C) – 1983 The durability of the game-changing Casio G-Shock managed to avoid a prohibitive price bracket while earning cult cool status. Its engineer, Kikuo Ibe,…
Unimatic’s tough Italian exterior gets the touch of Japanese designer Mihara Yasuhiro in a marriage of crisp white Cerakote™ and extreme minimalism. Unimatic, based in Milan, has a strong reputation for their no-nonsense tough 40mm tool watches, with their bold cases and stubby-perfect 49mm lug-to-lug length. With the Unimatic x Mihara Yasuhiro they have managed to bridge the divide between horology and Hypebeast. This is their second collaborative project this year, with the previous project being the instantly sold out Unimatic x Massena Lab neo-vintage version of this same U1. This time they’re back with a focus on purity, both in terms of aesthetic and shade, cranking the minimalist Unimatic design language up a notch – or a calm downturn, depending on your point of view. One thing is certain, in a world of lookalike vintage divers, this is a super-fresh ticket to a proper summer watch, not just in name but in nature, disguising what is a solid 300m Goldilocks-sized diver. Apparently stealth no longer comes only in black or grey, as a crisp white case can conceal a bulletproof tool watch. Upon closer inspection you will recognise the Unimatic language of the dial – highly legible round applied…
