Guillaume de Seynes

Basel, back in 1998! At that time, our watch division was much smaller. We only had three small meeting rooms. Everyone was scrambling to get in. I was staying at the Hotel de l’Europe, on the second floor, with the tram running outside all night long – it was a nightmare. Thankfully we’ve grown since then.

I have mixed feelings about it. I come from a generation before social media, after all. Certainly, it has a powerful and immediate impact, and a bigger reach than traditional magazines. On the other hand, social media content is consumed very quickly; it’s not useful unless it’s visually striking enough to capture effective attention. I only use Instagram, I must admit, and it might be fair to say that I still favour print media. That’s also why we print Le Monde d’Hermès magazine. I’d say we’re a company where culture – especially traditional culture – still matters deeply. At the same time, people forget that Hermès was the first luxury brand to launch an e-commerce website. At the millennium, my uncle made the decision to move online. He said, “If we’re going to have a website, it should be to sell. We’re merchants, not just storytellers.” It was quite a visionary move, especially coming from someone of his generation. Hermès is a heritage brand, yes – but one that constantly evolves, always adapting to a changing world while staying true to its philosophy.

No one in the Hermès group holds the title of Marketing Director. It’s a position that simply doesn’t exist here. But we place great importance on creativity. My cousin, Pierre-Alexis Dumas, is the Artistic Director of the company, and at the same time, he’s a member of the executive committee. I don’t think any other brand has its top creative person sitting on the executive committee. In this industry, what characterises Hermès is that we are perhaps more daring than traditional watchmakers. We express our creativity more freely in design. The first Hermès watch that we launched in 1978 was the Arceau, which is still a bestseller today. It’s now seen as a classic, but it was far from traditional back in 1978. It was asymmetrical and had these whimsical, floating numbers on the dial.

The designer of the Arceau is a gentleman who still occasionally works with us. He’s 91 years old now, and I recently had lunch with him. His name is Henri d’Origny. He also de- signed the Clipper watch. That was actually his first watch design. He had already been working with Hermès for 20 years, creating hundreds of ties, some beautiful scarves, and even bags. When my uncle asked him to try de- signing a watch, Henri wasn’t particularly in- terested, which gave him a lot of creative free- dom. He always tells me that he started with a sketch, and the idea of the asymmetrical case just came to him. If we had been a traditional watch company, we probably would have told Henri, “You can’t do that – it’s not allowed in this industry.” The freedom to create simply wouldn’t have been the same. 

We do have very old products that are still part of the collection – take the Kelly bag, for example. It was designed by my grandfather in 1935, and it’s still going strong, still a bestseller. That’s one approach. But generally, we’re not so focused on bringing things back from the archives. I remember wanting to revive a watch from the 1960s, which was a beautiful collaboration with Jaeger-LeCoultre. I brought the idea to my uncle, and he said, “No, that’s not creation. We shouldn’t look backward. We need ideas for the present.” That response really stayed with me.

I have two answers. First, it’s true thatHermès holds a highly respected position; there’s a great deal of admiration for the brand. People expect every Hermès product to be of the highest quality. Of course, that’s a challenge. Naturally, that creates pressure – on everyone. Now, for the watch division, the situation is a bit different. We’re still challengers in that field. There are so many established, prestigious watch brands with histories that stretch back over a century. Compared to them, we’re relatively new. That said, we’re a much stronger challenger today than we were 30 years ago – but we’re still challengers. So in watches, we have to strike a balance: we need to stay true to what people expect from Hermès in terms of design and quality, but also remain humble as we strive to match the technical expertise of the top players in the industry.

Many of our watches are purchased by loyal Hermès customers. However, we started noticing a shift in 2011, when we launched our first complication: the Arceau Le temps suspendu. That was a turning point. We began seeing men, especially, coming to Hermès specifically for that watch – collectors or watch enthusiasts. In Asia and beyond, we heard things like, “My wife has been a customer for years, but this is the first time I’m buying something for myself at Hermès.” It felt like a real achievement.

As a Parisian, I’d say one of my real luxuries is living close to the office and being able to walk there. With traffic and transportation being so crazy, that’s a daily luxury I really appreciate!