EXALTED COMBINATION

The maison's tour de force for the year is a nicely conceived product of haute horlogerie

- RUCKDEE CHOTJINDA

The Hermès Arceau Duc Attelé was among the most ambitious mechanical creations at Watches and Wonders Geneva this year, featuring a central triple-axis tourbillon and a tuning fork minute repeater. It follows in the footsteps of the 2019 Arceau L'heure de la lune, which reimagined the moon phase display, and the 2022 Arceau Le Temps Voyageur, which proposed a more elaborate way to indicate time in two zones simultaneously.

Originally invented in the early 19th century to reduce rate errors due to gravity on the accuracy of pocket watches, the tourbillon has become a holy grail for watch enthusiasts since the renaissance of mechanical watchmaking in the 1990s. Since then, we have seen a proliferation of tourbillon designs, including multiple tourbillon setups and single tourbillons operating on multiple axes.