For my (no offence!) compass of values Hermes is a brand which is not dear … it is ridiculously expensive.
However, their mechanical watches are an exception of that “rule”. While still costly, they are quite affordable compared to the relevant competition – and relative to other products of the brand they are a bargain. For 5.600€ you have the choice between a Backgammon game made from ordinary maple wood, or the Hermes Slim d’Hermès !

You may like them or not, but Hermes watches are very well executed, to quite some extent made in-house (they have set up a dedicated watch company in Biel/Bienne as early as 1978!) and use Vaucher movements (Hermes owns a 25% stake of that manufacturer), which you mostly find in more expensive watches!

This, however, was not the reason why I looked for an Hermes watch (it was rather a kind of “necessary condition”). It was the elegant and at the same time bold design. If you’ll forgive the bold reference to my second article here on fifthwrist.com about ochs and junior (not online yet, but soon), you’ll see there that I like fonts that are special. Like on some ochs und junior watches, like on my Panerai and my Oak and Oscar or on the AnOrdain watches, just to name a few.

The font on the Hermes Slim d’Hermès was created by the quite famous graphic designer Philippe Apeloig and I love it. But that’s not all … the dark grey dial is made in three planes. One for the said numerals, one for the centre of the dial including the indexes and logo and one for the small seconds.

The hands are as slim as the watch and the numerals and boost the elegance of the watch. Using a loupe (or the zoom on the pics) you can see, that the hands have two structures on each side which means they play very pleasantly with the light … great! The dial really is a piece of art. As far as I understand, this is done in-house, too, as Hermès acquired the dial manufacturer Natéber from La Chaux-de-Fonds in 2012.

The case design and finish (they own a case manufacturer, too) of the Hermes Slim d’Hermès is also quite elaborate, the most striking part being the uniquely styled lugs. Not only different, but also short and therefore very comfortable. As well as this the crown and the buckle are also far from being off the shelf too. I can’t find a single design element which is not thought through thoroughly.

I always wanted a microrotor. Not only do I like ‘semi-manufacture” movements, I really like the looks of a microrotor movement. The rest of the movement is also, as far as I understand/read, very well constructed (eg: has a tungsten rotor and a balance with variable inertia featuring gold inertia blocks).

While the decoration of the Hermes Slim d’Hermès movement is certainly and understandably not to everybody’s taste, I really like the look, which is kind of industrial and elegant at the same time. It’s done really well including hand-chamfered edges.

The Hermes Slim d’Hermès is slim, which makes a lot of sense in a watch that has slim even in its name.
And the strap? Well, it’s Hermès! The leather feels fantastic and the buckle is very nice and special too.

So what’s not to like? Alligator is not my favourite material for more than one reason. At some stage the strap will have be be replaced. How will the Hermes Slim d’Hermès look on a “normal” leather strap? Time will tell.