During a visit to the Greek island of Tinos, Hermès reveals the creativity, the ingenuity and the inspiration behind its new ladies’ watch Hermès Cut.
When Hermès extended a very mysterious invitation to a very secretive location and promised a trip of a lifetime, naturally I said yes without skipping a beat. I was told I’d be one of 50 journalists from around the world who were going to the Shapes of Time Island, where we’d discover the Hermès Universe and the inspirations behind the brand’s recently launched women’s sports watch, the Hermès Cut.
Two flights, a boat ride and 29 hours later, I set foot on Tinos, a Greek island that’s part of the Cyclades archipelago, situated just between Andros and Mykonos. Most of us have never heard of Tinos before we landed on it, but the island has a magical quality about it – something in the air , or the rocks maybe – and we’re spending the next two days getting to know the place, inside and out. Laurent Dordet, CEO of Hermès Horloger, and creative director Philippe Delhotal stand waiting to greet us at the door of the Odera hotel. Part of the luxury Autograph Collection, the Odera doesn’t officially open till later this summer, but we’re welcomed as its first unofficial visitors.
Dordet playfully says that he’d never heard of Tinos till recently, but assures us it’s a “fantastic place close to paradise” and is quite certain that it’s the best location on Earth for us to experience the language of the Hermès Cut, to experience the thought process behind the new watch and, to an extent, experience what Hermès on the whole represents. Hermès of course, wasn’t born in Tinos, but Tinos is nonetheless where we’ll get to understand Hermès. You’ll see tomorrow, we’re told. Adventure a waits but, first, there’s refreshments, followed by a warm meal and then well- earned sleep.
The island of Tinos is hardly what anyone would describe as “manicured”. Next day, as we drive to an old marble quarry by the sea, we feel ever y one of the road’s rough edges and bumps. But looking out the window, there’s beauty everywhere, from the stepped plains on the hilly slopes, carved and lined with stone walls since antiquity to form cultivable land, to the volcanic rock formations or boulders that decorate every bend on the road. Tinos is volcanic, and nature has gifted it with all sorts of rare minerals and stones, from white and green marble in the northern part of the island, to slate and granite to the south. The island’s marble helped shape the art and architecture of Greece and beyond, and Tinos was the birthplace of so many artists and architects that it earned the name, “the island of art and beauty”.
Arriving eventually at our destination, we get to appreciate marble in its rawest and most natural form for ourselves. Big slabs of rock, beautifully veined in green, have been hewed from the mountainside and our path is strewn with more broken shards.
We’re here for a site -specific performance, envisioned by Italian artist Alessandro Sciarroni to music composed by Aurora Bauzà and Pere Jou. Titled Shapes of Time, it’s the continuation of a work first performed during Watches and Wonders; now that it’s set in the quarry, it brings the vision of the “cut” fully to life. And what a way to experience it. The cut-side of the mountain forms the backdrop and the stage, and the rocky beach beside a clear lagoon is our seating area. For 10 short minutes, we sit enraptured by the choir’s enchanting voices, fully absorbing in the energy and the power of our surroundings. I find myself marvelling at the gigantic cuts in the side of the mountain that reveal its precious mineral resources. Nature may have given us these raw materials, but it was mankind that made the first cut. It was the human touch that turned Tinos marble into beautiful sculptures and ancient temples, too – and here I find myself thinking: without nature’s gifts, would we have had the same magnificent buildings and objects? If Hermès hadn’t had nature for its inspiration and materials, would it have been the same?
My thoughts are disrupted, however, by lunch among the rocks. Fresh cucumber salads, tomatoes doused generously in olive oil and just- caught grilled fish are served, washed down with sips of cold Greek wine and fig-leaf-infused water. More revelations about the Hermès Cut will have to come later.
The second day on the island is our busiest. I take up an offer of morning tai chi by the beach, led by a Greek woman who learned the martial art from Hong Kong masters – and it isn’t such a weird proposition to do tai chi in Tinos. The five elements of qi gong – water , wood, fire, earth and metal – form the foundations of tai chi, and here on Tinos the power of nature couldn’t be felt more strongly. The open sea, the famous Meltemi winds that whip up from the north, the waves of heat and, of course, the rich ore in its soil. Re-energised, we then head to the beautiful town of Pyrgos to visit the Museum of Marble Craft, where we learn about the historical trajectory of marble carving and sculpting on the island. We also take a short hike to understand the wonders of nature and the diverse geological patterns of the island. How wind, sea, rain and time shaped – and cut – the land, and how different one area would be from the next.
But our most humbling lesson takes the form of a marble workshop. Our instructor is Giorgos C Palamaris, who was born in England to parents from the island, then returned to his roots to study marble craftsmanship and now teaches the craft. He’s also actively involved in archaeology, participating in excavation and reconstruction projects in the Cyclades, working on various sites including Despotiko of Antiparos at the Archaic Temple of Apollo. We’re all presented with a slab of rough marble and picks of different sizes and taught how to use our tools. And then we’re invited to hammer away.
Cutting stone is hard work. The shock from hammering stone with metal vibrates through my entire arm and I lose my grip every few seconds only to see, with some disappointment, that I’ve barely scratched the surface. Five minutes later I’m about to give up, but Palamaris comes by to “check my work” so I begrudgingly pick up my tools again and carry on. It’s a reminder that any material, whether stone, gold or silk, has its own inherent properties that make it difficult to work with. It’s also a reminder of how a skilled human hand can totally transform these materials into beautiful objects. Nature gave us marble, but it’s the human hand that gives life to it. And this is what Hermès has been trying to show us all along. The Hermès Cut took time to realise – it was a two years in the making. It’s a beautiful mechanism that tells time and a beautiful object shaped from time. Its form is inspired by nature but cut by the human hand.
We’re joined by Dordet and Delhotal under the blazing sun, where once again we’re presented with the Hermès Cut collection. Hermès has always created shaped watches that are different from all others – watches such as the Cape Cod, the Arceau and the Heure H, with strong Hermès motifs (equestrian or an anchor- chain). The Hermès Cut is different in a way, it’s inspired by Hermès ideology and an interest in geometry – a tribute to simple shapes. It’s round but not perfectly so, with the smooth sides of the case now disrupted by two sharp cuts that give the watch its name. I liked it the first time I saw it: a robust, versatile sports watch well-suited in size and taste for women, but now I have a whole new appreciation for it, and for the team’s work in creating it.
Back at the Odera, we gather for one last supper together, joined by Hermès’ artistic director Pierre-Alexis Dumas, who’s flown in to join us just for one night. In a closing speech, he reminds us that the first act of culture had been the cutting of stone. “Our predecessors a few million years ago were the first to begin cutting stone, ” he says. “ And why is it an act of culture? It wasn’t because they cut stone to make weapons or tools, but it’s because they figured out how to teach and train their offspring how to cut stone. It was the beginning of education and civilisation, and that’s what the Hermès Cut is about.
“So when we look at the watch, we’re not only thinking, ‘Oh it’s a nice ladies’ watch, ’”says Dumas. “It’s the Cut. It’s a reminder never to forget that we’re human.”
This article was first published in Prestige Hong Kong
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