Sport motif: Hermès adds two new additions to their H08 line
The H08 remains the perfect hybrid watch of athletic luxury
AS FAR AS TIMEPIECES GO, the Hermès H08 has always been one with split loyalties. A dress watch finesse with an athlete’s physique, it was designed to slip from boardroom to bike trail without breaking stride. This year, the maison has added two new editions to the growing line-up, both titanium with new colourways that nudge the line further into its own distinct territory: precise, playful and quietly architectural.
The first iteration is Hermès at its most understated. A grained light-toned dial, cushion-shaped titanium case and Arabic numerals that glow after dark. A single orange flick at the end of the seconds hand is the only indulgence, a nod to house codes and a small reminder of Hermès’ penchant for merging function with flourish. It comes with the option for three rubber straps in orange, bleu abysse or black.
The second model brings colour to the front. Its numerals, treated in bleu Saint-Cyr Super-LumiNova, animate a grey dial beneath a black ceramic bezel that alternates between brushed and polished finishes. Paired with rubber straps in grey or matching Saint-Cyr blue, it’s a sharper-edged take on the H08, less anonymous and more expressive.
Inside, both watches are powered by Hermès’ in-house H1837 self-winding calibre, a 193-component movement with a 50-hour reserve and a rotor decorated in a scatter of “H”s. Water resistance is rated to 10 bar, and the anti-glare sapphire crystal keeps the focus on those dials. The dimensions remain a versatile 42 mm, sitting squarely in that territory of watchmaking where proportion and wearability matter as much as the spec sheet.
The H08 perfectly conveys Hermès’ approach to sport – as a pastime of leisure. It has always carried a sense of the Parisian in its geometry, a cushion case that sits between square and round and the contrast of materiality.
What Hermès is suggesting here is that timekeeping doesn’t need to shout to make a statement. Sometimes all it takes is a new shade of blue, or a single orange second hand, to remind us that utility can still be elegant.
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