Hermès is known for its elegance and luxury, and its ability to take already-wonderful things into the realm of absolutely fantastic. They pride themselves in their commitment to beauty and artisanship. They master art forms and skills to the level of master craftsmanship. And recently they focused on the art of weaving.

Weaving is an art form that takes years to master. It’s more than just a series of threads that you put together. It’s the interplay of the colors, the textures, and the resulting images. Weaving can portray simple patterns, geometric shapes, or detailed scenes. The use and placement of the threads creates depth and texture to the image and brings it to life. Weaving as a decorative aspect is usually seen in furniture or wall hangings.

Hermès has chosen the delicate and elegant Ikat fabric-making and weaving technique and pulled it from the walls and furniture to place it on the dial of a watch. The Ikat technique originated in Asia and also uses gold thread.  Working with gold thread is a delicate and even more precious process that regular weaving, since gold thread is thinner than typical thread. The artist plans the design – for the Hermès watch it is a galloping horse – by identifying a start and end point for each gold thread. Each point is laser-hollowed with a cavity or latch point for the gold thread. The intersection or crossover point of the horizontal and vertical gold threads allow for depth and texture in the image. Extra care must be taken because the gold thread is thin and delicate. And luxurious.

The Slim d’ Hermès Cheval Ikat watch offers two color palettes to choose from – a light and a dark. The lighter palette has a white dial with the gold horse weaving, a rose gold case, and a Chantilly alligator strap. The darker palette has a blue dial with the white horse weaving, a white gold case, and a black alligator strap. Both watches have the Manufacture Hermès H1950 ultra-thin movement, a mechanical self-winding movement, handcrafted in Switzerland. The watches have hours and minutes and a 42-hour power reserve.

The choice between the two is really a matter of personal preference and which one would fit best within your aesthetic. Of course, there is nothing stopping you from opting to get one of each. If your heart is set on one, or both, of these watches, then best trot your way to an Hermès atelier. The Hermès Ikat Slim watch is in a limited and numbered edition of 36 for either the white or blue dial.