It’s shaping up to be a big year for watchmaking at Hermès. The French luxury house is carving out new territory with a skeleton model for its H08 collection. It’s not the first time the line has received an elevated movement—a chronograph monopusher was introduced in 2023—but it does suggest the direction in which the brand is moving its offering. Many high-end watchmakers make skeletonized models, but it’s surprisingly fitting for the maison. The design was invented in the 18th century in France, not Switzerland, and, figuratively speaking at least, it plays into the brand’s “less is more” ethos. “When I speak about the house’s DNA, it’s really about restraint,” creative director of Hermès Horloger Philippe Delhotal tells Robb Report. “That is, we prefer to take things away rather than add them, in order to achieve something very simple, very understated.”

But refining a watch to its bare bones is formidable. Despite the removal of material, the architecture can result in a busy design and potentially make reading the time difficult. Hermès approached the issue with a minimal execution inspired by urban buildings instead of the more-baroque curves often found in this style. The hands, as well as the applied Arabic numerals, are coated in Super-LumiNova for extra visibility. The open-worked dial and case are made from titanium, adding an extra challenge to the manufacturing process. Although lightweight and robust, the material is notoriously difficult to machine, requiring more work to achieve the angles.

The structure also necessitated a new movement. The caliber H1978S—a numerical reference to the year Hermès set up its watchmaking facilities in Biel, Switzerland—is an improved version of its predecessor that ups the power reserve from 50 hours to 60. Its durability was tested in a simulation mimicking 10 years of wear to ensure it would withstand the test of time. This means that unlike other fragile skeleton timepieces, this watch can be worn while skiing, running, biking, or swimming (it’s water-resistant to 100 meters and comes with a screw-down crown). “This is the first time this new-generation movement is entering our collections, and it is entering through a skeleton and through a titanium movement,” says Hermès Watchmaking C.E.O. Laurent Dordet. “All of our future movements will not be in titanium nor in skeleton, but they will be from this generation of movement—more performative, more robust, resistant to anti-magnetism, etc.”

The watch is part of a broader push to elevate Hermès’s horological credentials. When Robb Report visited its manufacture in Switzerland in February for a sneak peek at the timepiece, the company was mid-construction on a sprawling addition to its facility that will produce cases and dials, building more than 75,000 square feet onto the existing 43,000-square-foot space and welcoming an additional 100 employees to the 300-strong headcount. Just an hour’s drive away, Vaucher, in which Hermès has held a minority stake for more than two decades, creates its movements. The respected manufacture also supplies calibers to top-tier watch brands such as Richard Mille, Parmigiani Fleurier, and Audemars Piguet.

As a lifestyle brand, Hermès’s approach to watchmaking remains distinct: Design and creativity come first, with technical performance following. In Switzerland, the order is often reversed, and that difference can be a strength rather than a limitation. “But you know, at Hermès we don’t do things like the others,” Delhotal says with a smile.

That difference is resonating—particularly in the U.S., where Dordet says the H08 has become one of the brand’s strongest timepieces. With the introduction of a more ambitious skeleton model, Hermès is proving that it can hold its own even in the most exacting corners of Swiss watchmaking. $21,600