Apple to Partner With Hermes For New Apple Watch Bands and Watch Faces

Today at its "Hey Siri" event, Apple announced a partnership with Hermes to create a special Apple Watch collection called Apple Watch Hermes. The new collection will feature three brand new bands and watch faces. The watch bands will include the Double Tour, Single Tour, and the Cuff.

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.

The new Apple Watch Hermes collection will come in 10 unique options for customers to choose from, but the individual Hermes bands will not be sold by themselves. The Double Tour band will be available only in 38mm sizes, due to its more feminine look, and come in four different colors. Both 38mm and 42mm customers will be able to choose from the three color options of the Single Tour band, while the larger Cuff style is offered in one single 42mm leather option.

Pricing wise, the Double Tour collection will cost $1,250, the Single Tour will cost $1,100, and the Cuff comes in at the most expensive mid-tier Apple Watch option yet: $1,500. The collection won't be available to purchase online, and will follow the Apple Watch Edition route and will only be available at specific Apple and Hermes retail locations across the country in October.

Tag: September 2015 Event

Top Rated Comments

hufflematt

105 months ago

Call me Mr Picky if you will, but I think they look bloody awful.

Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)

mrfoof82

All the money will be spent -.-

Pretty much. This is smart. There is no better way to get into the fashion market than partnering with brands that are already incredibly successful in it.

I'm not in the market for an Hermes Apple Watch, but I'll admit the bands look great. The package as a whole will sell incredibly well. Moreover, for Hermes it'll get more people in their stores that otherwise would never set foot in them -- not a ton, but it'll increase their reach.

I'd expect more of these partnerships in the future, because the other luxury fashion brands are not going to want to be left out in the cold.

exxxviii

The current Edition watches have faces only available to them. So, I suspect the new faces will only be on branded Hermes watches.

BlueAquarian

These are also more expensive than the regular SS Apple Watches though.

That's ok..if it isn't more than $2000. A woman has to have Hermes at least once in her life.

Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)

C7 POWER

With the announcement of the new Hermes Watch Bands and Watch Faces, will these watch faces be a part of the Watch oS2 or will this only be if you buy a special Hermes Apple Watch? That was not made clear in the introduction.

bandrews

Parse it any way you want, the fact remains it's a skuemorphic representation of a mechanical watch face intended to mimic a signature watch of an important brand -- complete with a prominently displayed Hermes logo on the face. Apple designed the Watch, not Hermes. The only thing Hermes did here is design a band to attach to Apple's lugs. And yet they put their name all over it. In some respects this is far worse then the path taken by the Huawei watch you reference. There's really no difference between what they did and what Apple is doing now with Hermes.

I think you're mixing your "skeuomorphs" and your "visual metaphors". If there was a digitally simulated brushed metal effect or wood grain then yes, it would be skuomorphic. However the Hermes watch face is no more skuomorphic than any other "analogue" watch/clock on an LCD screen. It is quite obviously digital and in no way tries to mimic other materials.

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