The Faubourg, Hermès’ elegant ladies watch, debuted in 2014 with a small round dial and a delicate jewelry inspired strap. The following year, the French luxury goods company gave this sweet timepiece a cool overhaul by trading in the genteel strap for a tough luxe leather cuff-style strap. The leather design referenced Hermès’ expertise in the area of harness- and saddle-making. This year at Baselworld, the brand revealed another fresh take on the design, this time made all the more exquisite with the use of colorful gems.
This year’s Faubourg Manchette Joaillerie watches combine that signature broad leather cuff with gem-studded bezels and precious stone dials. At first the leather craftsman assembles the cuff strap using the saddle-stitching technique, making three double stitches at each end of the seam before rubbing down the sharp edges and pressing a furrow between the seam and the edge of the leather. The strap contour is dyed and then heat-smoothed with a soldering iron, in an operation known as burnishing. To finish, it is waterproofed with beeswax.
Next, the watch case’s hollowed out bezel is fitted with 36 precisely cut baguette set gems, color coordinated to the color of the strap. Green straps twinkle with emeralds while blue and brown straps get sapphires in matching hues. The classic black strap gets clear, crystalline diamonds. Even the dials are made from precious gems, green malachite, blue lapis lazuli, amber tiger’s eye and black onyx are each set with four diamonds at the 12, 3, 6 and 9 indices. The colored variants feature rose gold cases and pin buckles while the black one uses white gold.
We have no word on the prices just yet, but watch this space for updates!
