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in Charles Dickens’ book The Old Curiosity Shop. Located at the top of Hermès’ flagship store on Faubourg Saint-Honore in Paris, the museum is a well-kept secret that is opened only to a few invited media and guests. Past invitees include Andy Warhol, Grace Kelly and Elizabeth Taylor. Founded by Emile-Maurice Hermès, the museum is meant to be a place where designers and staff come to be inspired. Not everything here is made by Hermès; in reality, a lot of the items are things Emile gathered on his travels or that caught his attention.
of them date back to more than a 100 years. At every corner, there was something to admire — a framed picture of the very first Hermès logo took pride of place over a disused fireplace. There was also equestrian paraphernalia, a horse-drawn carriage, an old Hermès clock, pill boxes, swords, picnic baskets and travel trunks that travellers nailed to the floor when they stayed in hotels. The list seems endless, as there are about 55,000 Hermès heritage objects here. The museum staff showed us some historical timepieces too. We admired one with a gold bracelet and were told that only 10 pieces were made. The museum managed to locate only one. Looking around, it is no wonder that Hermès invites designers that it collaborates with to browse the museum for ideas. For example, it was during such an excursion that Ini Archibong was inspired to create the equestrian-inspired Galop d’Hermès timepiece. Creative director Hermès Horloger Philippe Delhotal, meanwhile, admits to spending many hours here to absorb the spirit of the place.



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A watch movement that is made at the Vaucher Manufacture Fleurier Movements, cases and dials
The next stop on our amazing journey was Fleurier, Switzerland to visit the Vaucher Manufacture Fleurier (VMF), which supplies high-end mechanical movements to various watch maisons. There are about 160 people working here producing about 12,000 movements a year. The current facility was founded in 2003, but its history can be traced to the 18th century when the Vaucher family produced their first movements in Fleurier. In 1730, David-Jean-Jacques-Henri Vaucher trained many apprentices, including the young Ferdinand Berthoud, who some years later, with John Harrison, became one of the founding fathers of chronometry and was appointed Watchmaker to the King in France. In keeping with this philosophy, VMF continues to pass on its knowledge, training numerous apprentices and sharing its expertise as a movement manufacturer with talented watchmakers. Indeed, we saw a watchmaking class in progress for children aged 10 to 15. Their enthusiasm was palpable as they pored over their textbooks with drawings and diagrams that only a watchmaker would understand.

the properties and secrets of a broad range of materials including brass, gold, aluminium, carbon fibre, mother-of-pearl and, sometimes, enamel, wood and precious stones. We were taken into a mechanical workshop where the case was transformed from a block of material to one that was polished, shaped and ready to be assembled. But not before our guide took us to what he called the torture room. It was here that he gleefully put a case on a hammer and swung it against a wall. Only when he was satisfied were the case and dial sent to a “nameless workshop”, where artisans set the diamonds, prepared the mother- of-pearl, faceted certain parts and performed small manual operations that cannot be done elsewhere. Metals such as steel, gold and titanium, and even rare materials such as tantalum and palladium, were used. In the hands of talented engineers, these materials were transformed by going through processes such as machining or stamping/swaging, depending on the object. For example, the latter path was taken by the case of the Cape Cod, which features a distinctive curve and rounded shapes. These operations were interspersed with regular firings in the kiln to let down or slacken the material. This involved a number of treatments including drilling, welding or cementing, cleaning and polishing, along with final quality control and water-resistance tests. Finally, the various parts of the case were ready for the movement to be placed.
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Only unblemished leather in various shades are used to make the strap for watches Straps to complete the timepiece
From Le Noirmont, we hopped on a bus to Bienne, Switzerland where we were showed how leather watch straps are made. Hermès is known for its exquisite workmanship in leather craft. Just take a look at the fine finishing on the Hermès Birkin and Kelly bags and you will understand what we are talking about. We saw shelves heaving with bales of leather in every colour imaginable, along with exotic skins such as alligator and ostrich. Not surprisingly, Hermès signature leather — the Barenia or Epsom grain —was present everywhere.
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