Can fashion brands ever be taken seriously as watchmakers? Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Chanel and Hermès are hoping for haute horlogerie, but collectors still covet traditional Swiss timepieces

Sep 13 , 2021

The dial for the Hermès Arceau Toucan de Paradis watch, crafted with silk thread from Agnès Paul-Depasse. Photo: David Marchon

Ralph Lauren has watches featuring movements made by Richemont Group’s IWC or Jaeger-LeCoultre marques, and even a Bugatti-inspired collection

Haute couture maisons have impressed at Watches and Wonders – particularly Louis Vuitton’s Tambour Carpe Diem – but is that enough to compete with Rolex and Patek Philippe?

When Gucci released its collection of high-end timepieces in the spring of 2021 – a mix of understated elegance and flamboyant élan – it joined a select band of big fashion houses now making haute horlogerie.

Inside Chanel’s Electro Star Ambiance Q – one of the fashion brands gaining increasing credibility in the watchmaking world. Photo: Chanel

Most fashion brands have a collection of fashion watches, often through licensing with groups like Timex, Movado or Fossil. Higher up at the haute horology level, some brands even have their own manufacturing, producing complicated watches with exquisite artisanal finishes that reflect the maison’s history or philosophy.

Paris-based watch collector Ramesh Nair is generally dubious about fashion brands’ watch creations. But for him, there is one exception: Hermès. “They have a proper A-Z manufacture since they bought the stake in Vaucher. But they also have a head start, since they have made watches since the 1920s,” he says.

Ralph Lauren’s American Western watch collection is distinguished by their heavily engraved cases. Photo: Ralph Lauren

Nair’s assessment that Hermès have the most credibility among the watchmaking fashion houses is shared by other experts, and Laurent Dordet, CEO of Hermès Horloger, is unsurprisingly happy to lean into this: “In recent years we have confirmed that Hermès is legitimate in making watches. In 2011, Hermès acquired a financial stake in the Vaucher Manufacture in Fleurier for movements, and we have also integrated the production of dials and cases.”

The former harness maker, founded in Paris in 1837, also works with external high-end watchmakers including Agenhor and Chronode. The last decade has seen the stylistically pure and minimalist Slim d’Hermès (2015); the Carré H (2018), a square-shaped watch designed by Marc Berthier with a contemporary aesthetic; Arceau (2019), with a double moon phase; and back in 2011, Le Temps Suspendu, with the whimsical and wonderful “let’s stop time” function. In 2021 came the new Hermès H08 line equipped with a manufacture movement, and in the future this collection will house more complex movements.

Hermès H08 titanium DLC orange rubber. Photo: Hermès

“The relationship between Hermès and time is very strong,” says Dordet. “The first timepieces date back to the early 1920s. In all the products we create, Hermès aims to present objects of the highest quality reflecting a long-term strategy, and that therefore naturally implies making high-end watches embodying all the values of the house. Look at the recent launch of Arceau Tourbillon Lift Répétition Minutes, which is a traditional complication we have interpreted with our own style. We will never stop surprising our customers with innovative products.”

The skull and enamelled snake on the LV Tambour Carpe Diem can be set to move at intervals. Photo: Louis Vuitton