If you haven’t yet found your perfect Apple Watch strap among the company’s own offerings or the numerous third-party options, Apple has today officially launched its partnership with French leather fashion company Hermès.
Uncompromising craftsmanship. Pioneering innovation. Groundbreaking functionality. Apple Watch Hermès is the culmination of a partnership based on parallel thinking, singular vision and mutual regard. It is a unique timepiece designed with both utility and beauty in mind. With leather straps handmade by Hermès artisans in France and an Hermès watch face reinterpreted by Apple designers in California, Apple Watch Hermès is a product of elegant, artful simplicity — the ultimate tool for modern life.
Splashing out between $1100 and $1500 gets you a special version of the stainless steel Watch, with Hermès branding on the back, a number of special watch faces and a choice of three leather straps. Color options depend on the strap, some with suitably exotic-sounding names …
The Single Tour ($1100) is Hermès’ own take on the Classic Buckle, available in Noir or Fauve (black or brown, for lesser mortals) in the 42mm version, while the 38mm model is also available in Capucine (red, to you or I).
The Double Tour ($1250) – available for the 38mm model only – is the same thing, but wrapping around the wrist twice to provide the look of a bracelet as well as watch. Choose between gray, brown, red or blue – or Etain (not Cosmos Etain …), Fauve, Capucine and Bleu Jean.
The Cuff ($1500) is available only in brown, and can also be used to retrieve falcons (probably).
The Hermès Watch is available only at select Apple Stores, Hermès stores and a handful of high-end fashion stores. You can find the full list of retailers here.
Jony Ive recently revealed that the collaboration with the Paris-based company began even before the Watch was announced.
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Ben.
The name of the company is Hermès, not Hermēs, as you have repeatedly written.
Agreed.
Accent grave s’il vous plaît!
You’re right, thanks – I was misled by the heading at the top of this Apple page: http://www.apple.com/uk/apple-watch-hermes/ – now corrected.
whatever is called – who is buying this? Sounds like Apple might be keeping the same size for the 2nd gen – otherwise this sounds like a waste of money.
This might be a stupid question, the watch face is specially made for Hermes and is only available through the Watch you buy with them? I thought it would be available through WatchOS 2 but I guess, you wanna keep the exclusivity. But isn’t it just the normal stainless steel case and you could buy the straps additionally?
The straps aren’t sold separately.
The straps are wonderful but the watch face is really really nice.. i thing it goes very well with squarish shape of the watch, i don’t like the round faces…
Again, the Apple Watch separates itself by being just as much of a tech accessory as it is a fashion accessory with partnerships like this.
Agreed; although I would have hoped that more high end fashion houses had made straps for the Apple watch — D&G, Gucci, Prada, Dior, Fendi, etc…When it first was announced that Apple was allowing for partners to create their own straps I predicted the entire fashion world would jump on this opportunity…I guess I was wrong. I realize all of these guys sell their own watches, but….meh, only a few of them have smart watches for sale, and they really are not that great.
Wow, the single tour is beautiful. I wish these were sold separately, or at least were available at launch time. I am a big Hermès fan, I have a few of their belts, they are very very nice.
Oh Mr Lovejoy,
“…Noir or Fauvre (black or brown, for lesser mortals) …” Noir is pretty well known to any student or film buff from my grandpa’s day on when the French cinema introduced Film Noir, so with that group of intelligensia aside, your ” lesser mortals” may refer to anyone who doesn’t speak French (something my French friends might agree with). However it also might be that one who writes “Fauvre” instead of “Fauve” also belongs in the second category. It’s an easy 2.5 hour ride via Chunnel to visit France from the UK and see those words (with one’s own eyes. in context usually makes learning easier, my profs always say).
Apple is trying too hard to be fashionable. They need to stop pussyfooting around and concentrate on what’s inside the watch, rather than the outside.
Watches are by definition a fashion item…No one gets a watch just to be able to tell time. We all have clocks on our phones…
So you really think Apple made a smartwatch as a fashion item? First of all, this is not a normal watch where Apple needs to keep trying to invent new ways to make it fashionable. It is a smartwatch, with the emphasis being on smart. They can try to add all the bling in the world to this watch and it is still not going to sell the way they would ideally like it to sell. It is because the emphasis on smart was not properly executed. Stop worrying about the externals and get the internals right. That is what Apple is all about. As soon as they are capable of adding health-related sensors to these watches and stand alone GPS they will start flying off the shelves. Until then, its doomed no matter what bling they add (hermes or any other crap).
Just imagine having the cash to dump on this sort of stuff. Sure, it’s all sexified “high-fashion” awesomeness, but dang son, I gots me some bills to pay!
how is the general consensus around here? would apple really be revealing new watches every year?
i somehow doubt it. with phones, i understand.
but watches? that watch cost about 1000 dollars. i do not buy new macbooks (say roughly a thousand dollars) every year…
I’d happily cough up $400 for an Hermes strap and the watch faces. I love my 38mm style and ringing the style changes takes my fancy. Not enough to buy a whole new watch though!
They definitely did not have much supply at launch. I got to the UES store at 9:05, was about 10th in line, and wound up with one of the last models they had in stock (38mm Fauve, which is what I wanted). They had 1 Noir left and weren’t sure whether they were getting any more that day.