There are two core elements in any dance: movement and rhythm. The Arceau Belles du Mexique watch pays tribute to the men and women who perpetuate the tradition of the hat dance. Originally from Jalisco, the central Mexican region on the shores of the Pacific, it features these dancers, renowned for the relative immobility of their torsos contrasting with frantic footwork. They are depicted from above on a Hermès silk scarf released in 2017. The virtuoso design celebrates dance, movement and exhilaration.
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- LA MONTRE HERMèS. Making og GVA cadran. Arceau Belles du Mexique Cadran en peinture miniature Neuchâtel, 08.10.2023 Photo David Marchon
The Arceau Belles du Mexique watch places this motif inside in a round, 38 mm-diameter white gold case. The dancers’ agility is showcased, as seven of them arranged around the hours and minutes are mobile and whirl freely in step with wrist movements. Watchmaker- choreographer Hermès thus stages a show combining body movement mastery with total freedom of expression – the very definition of a choreography whose gestures are codified and that each dancer executes according to his or her own sensitivity. This free, colourful circle dance is performed around a ring of 23 diamonds surrounding the central hours and minutes hands.
Like the seven others surrounding them, these dancers are entirely hand-crafted. Their relief is created by successive individual layers of paint. All fourteen dancers are then applied to the base of a painted dial.
LA MONTRE HERMèS. Making og GVA cadran.
Arceau Belles du Mexique
Cadran en peinture miniature
Neuchâtel, 08.10.2023
Photo David Marchon
The seven central figures are mounted on a free axis that makes them twirl at the slightest movement. The other seven catch and hold the light emanating from a bezel set with 82 diamonds. They are the motionless spectators of a central scene where the hat dance vies with the dance of time for the privilege of ticking off the hours and minutes. Beneath the stage beats a self- winding movement that perpetually charges the watch with new energy. The poet Virgil was so right when he wrote that spirit endows matter with movement.