Hermès cut collection AT WATCHES AND WONDERS 2025
Hermès presents its new Cut collection at Watches and Wonders 2025, where some timepiece designs literally suspend in the air. These watches emerge in Sarah-Anaïs Desbenoit’s filmic exhibition and set design at the brand’s booth. The annual timepiece trade show runs between April 1st and 7th in Geneva, Switzerland, and this year, Hermès sets the theme Time Suspended into motion. The brand taps the French director and visual artist to stage its exhibition design for the collection at the Geneva show. Sarah-Anaïs Desbenoit then brings over her cinematic flair through the frosted panels with a changing colored backdrop.
The visual artist draws her design influences from the rhythmic running of the watches as well as mechanisms. In fact, for the recent series of Hermès Cut collection, the brand unveils a reinterpretation of the 2011 model of Arceau Le temps suspendu timepiece design at Watches and Wonders 2025. Here, the slender 42 mm case frames an openworked dial to showcase the Time Suspended module. It moves through a Manufacture Hermès H1837 movement, and all of them are visible because of the transparent caseback. The see-through mechanisms of this watch then feel at home in the atmospheric scenography by Sarah-Anaïs Desbenoit.
all images courtesy of Hermès | photos by Team WHAAAT!, unless stated otherwise
Theme of suspended time in sarah-anaïs desbenoit’s set design
Visual artist Sarah-Anaïs Desbenoit presents a cinematic installation that captures the sensation of suspended time. The landscape she conceives at Watches and Wonders 2025 is in constant motion, like the designs in the Hermès Cut collection. Images appear, disappear, and reemerge. Through the frosted glass panels, artificial sunlight fluctuates between dawn and dusk. There’s even a continuous light loop that dictates the rhythm of the event space so that the installation remains in flux. The scenography also brings in architectural elements.
Portholes frame shifting urban and coastal views. They evoke changing landscapes similar to when moving vehicles pass by these sceneries. There are miniature structures that pop up in selected spaces, from street-lit roads and water towers to pavilions and stage sets. They all serve as subtle backdrops for Hermès Cut creations at Watches and Wonders 2025. Ambient sounds of raindrops, distant conversations, and traffic signals accompany Sarah-Anaïs Desbenoit’s filmic exhibition design. Her overall work then reflects on transitional places like time passing, pausing.
Hermès Cut collection emerges in Sarah-Anaïs Desbenoit’s filmic exhibition and set design
timepiece designs with seconds that run counterclockwise
For the reinterpreted Arceau Le temps suspendu timepiece, the Hermès Cut collection shows it in white or rose gold cases during the Watches and Wonders 2025. They come in three colors, namely sunburst blue, brun désert, rouge sellier. These timepiece designs bear asymmetrical lugs crafted in the Hermès Horloger workshops. Then, the Hermès Cut collection, introduced in 2024, also incorporates the Time Suspended complication. The 39 mm rose gold case houses the H1912 movement and features a seconds indicator that runs counterclockwise instead.
The collection includes several other versions, including one with a red dial. After that, the Maillon Libre series concludes the 2025 Hermès Cut collection, which features a wristwatch and brooch watch, with a chain link design. The wristwatch includes diamond or terracotta tourmaline center stones, and the time display is incorporated into the bracelet. The brooch can also be worn as a pendant with a leather cordlet. Visitors to Watches and Wonders 2025 in Geneva, Switzerland, can visit Hermès booth and see the Cut collection between April 1st and 7th, 2025.
frosted panels with a changing colored backdrop surrounds the exhibition
the scenography also brings in architectural elements
miniature structures pop up in the space, from street-lit roads and water towers to pavilions and stage sets
there’s even a continuous light loop that dictates the rhythm of the event space