‘For smaller brands to win, they need to be able to propose something different.’ How Hermès Watches joined the watchmaking big league

Almost 50 years ago, French luxury house Hermès entered the world of high-end watch manufacturing. The company has since achieved legitimacy among collectors and surpassed growth targets (in 2023 sales shot up by 20.6 per cent), and is well on its way to creating a number of icons – from the Cut, a minimal unisex design, to the sporty, contemporary H08. It has also established a manufacturing facility in Biel, Switzerland, and bought a stake in movement maker Vaucher Manufacture Fleurier.

Laurent Dordet, the CEO of Hermès Watches, believes that surviving in the highly competitive watch market as a medium-sized brand means taking creative risks. He encourages his team to embrace humour and have fun with the concepts that they develop for Watches and Wonders, ranging from suspended time to mystery mechanics. As he prepares for this year’s fair, he sits down with Monocle at the company’s Paris HQ to outline his vision for the business, give us a preview of the H08 Squelette and tell us why the company’s latest skeleton watch has already made it onto his wrist.

Since entering the watch sector, Hermès has steadily established itself and grown its business. What’s behind this success?
Since day one, we have always known that we have to be different. For this year’s Watches and Wonders, it’s all about mysterious mechanics – a story expressed through skeleton watches and the scenography of our booth, which allows visitors to dive into the magic of watch mechanics. Hermès has to be at the top and prove that, every year, we can keep moving forward in terms of quality, technique and innovation. That’s also why we introduced the concept of suspended time, our way of rethinking modern watchmaking.

Is creativity and storytelling becoming more important in watch design?
The market is becoming more polarised: if you’re not one of the top six brands, you’d better have something original to propose. Our revenues have been exceeding industry expectations because our work is respected technically and, above all, perceived to be original. Value is concentrated mostly in the top-six brands, which represent two thirds of the market – Rolex occupies a third. There are winners and losers. For smaller brands to win, they need to be able to propose something different.

Tell us about this year’s Watches and Wonders.
We always try to express a sense of continuity. This year we have developed our first skeleton watches in the Hermès H08 line, which involves working on the movement to make it more transparent, playful and technical. The H08 is the most important among them. We’re taking people on a journey inside the watch and introducing them to a new generation of movements. We have been investing a lot in this line with the goal of creating an icon. Why is it important for the house to be present at the annual fair? Watches and Wonders is the industry’s biggest annual rendezvous. And since we are part of this industry, we want to be part of the event and be in conversation with our peers. We are a medium-sized brand so it’s in our interests to participate and, until now, we have chosen to only be present at this fair. We don’t reveal all of the year’s novelties but we’re here to show that we are part of the watch community. For us, it’s a moment of communication. We have some wholesale partners visiting us but only a small portion of our sales is made through independent retailers. Notoriety is our goal.

You make a point of presenting a range of watches, from sporty designs to jewellery. Why?
Our range is quite vast – from relatively affordable to premium price points, from quartz to high-end mechanical movements, from everyday to jewellery watches. When you look at the majority of brands, very few of them are as diverse as we are. We decided to be present in so many segments because the house is extremely diverse and so is our clientele. I was in charge of bags and leather goods before becoming the CEO of Hermès Watches and the approach there was similar: we have both entry-level and high-end prices, simple and complex designs. Hermès was never about being super exclusive. We keep a range of products that are more affordable to allow us to attract younger customers.

How do you foresee the current geopolitical situation impacting the sector?
The industry has been facing headwinds for more than two years but everyone is proving resilient. Unfortunately, 2026 won’t be any better in this respect – we had high hopes in January and February but some people decided differently. It’s hard to predict the impact all of this will have. It depends on how long the war will last. Will it be a three-month story followed by a comeback or will it be two years? We know nothing about the leaders’ intentions.

Do you see opportunities for further growth?
We have had fantastic growth between 2018 and 2023 so have been able to expand our workshops. And there will be an extension of our factory in 2028 but its purpose won’t be to immediately increase our volumes. It’s also about improving people’s working conditions and integrating some additional know-how.

Despite the current challenges, we still think that there’s plenty of room for growth if we communicate to more people that Hermès has a presence in the watch sector, with designs that are both technical and playful. Our notoriety is still relatively limited among watch-lovers – so that’s what’s ahead for us.
hermes.com