With the Arceau Pocket Ailes et Ecailles watch, Hermès combines the art of scarab beetle elytra marquetry with two other techniques: engraving and miniature enamel painting.
For this two-piece limited numbered edition, gifted artisans perform a fascinating and complementary sequence of carefully mastered gestures. It begins with the engraver, who sketches out on a gold plate the motif inspired by a beach towel designed for Hermès by Pierre Marie. The waves and fins of the dial pattern gradually take shape in the wake of his graving tool.
This initial engraving is followed by Grand Feu enamelling where the enamellist applies just the right amount of glass powder into the hollows carved out by the engraver. Forming a vivid palette of blue and red shades, some opaque and others translucent, the various colours reveal their subtle nuances after several firings in the kiln. The dial then returns to the workshop of the engraver, who delicately hammers out the eye and mouth of the fish so as to accentuate the lines of the design.
While the engraver is delicately polishing the enamelled surfaces, the marquetry specialist carefully cuts out the fragments of the beetle elytra (shell) that will become the scales of the fish.
Once completed, the dial is fitted into a white gold case crafted in the Hermès workshops.
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