Hermès Arceau Cheval Natté dial: silk-thread marquetry at £79,000

Hermès has unveiled the Arceau Cheval Natté, a limited-edition watch whose dial is built from nearly 400 individually selected silk threads laid by hand. Designed by Tong Ren, the scene turns a horse's head into interlocking abstract geometry framed by a ring of bezel-set diamonds.

The maison handed the canvas to Ren, a Chinese-born industrial designer based in Finland, after the embroidered composition first appeared as a sketch for homeware. Reimagined for the delicate proportions of a 38mm case, the dial reads like stained glass, with shards of red, cobalt, ochre and green.

Each of the close to 400 silk threads is angled to catch light as the wrist moves, giving the dial a tactility that print or lacquer cannot reproduce. Beyond the 70 diamonds in the bezel sits a dial set with a further 123 stones, defined by champlevé engraving so they sit within the silk scene.

Hermès knows the Arceau dial is a canvas. The collection has a strong history of dial art, often equine in spirit, and the maison has previously shown hand-decorated dials in straw and micron-thin wood. This piece repurposes textile techniques for horology, the marquetry a time-consuming craft in its own right.

The Arceau's form comes from Henri d'Origny, who gave the house the shape in 1978. Its curvaceous, stirrup-like asymmetric case has long been a vehicle for artistic experimentation at the Hermès atelier, and here it returns to its equestrian origins without a bridle in sight.

Inside, the self-winding Hermès H1912 calibre powers the watch, visible through a sapphire case back scattered with H motifs. The brand was a harness-maker from 1837 and never chased fashion, a lineage that runs through both the strap and the dial of this piece.

Two versions are offered: a beige dial on a beige strap or a dark brown dial on a black strap, each fitted with soft alligator and finished by hand at the Hermès leather workshop. The watch is priced at £79,000 and available by enquiry through hermes.com.

The dial is a textile, not a print

Tong Ren's embroidered scene dissolves the horse's head into abstract fragments that lock together without a seam. Because the stones are defined by champlevé engraving rather than applied on top, the composition reads as one continuous field of silk and diamond rather than a decorated surface.

Hermès positions the Cheval Natté as a continuation of a practice its atelier has refined across years: marquetry rendered in materials no lacquer can match. Where earlier collections used straw and thin wood, the maison now works in thread, each angle of each fiber chosen to shift under light.

The result is a watch whose dial behaves like fabric: alive as the wrist turns, muted or bright depending on the angle. Hermès has long understood that a dial can carry art, and the Arceau collection's equestrian inspiration gives Ren's horsehead a natural home within the house's own vocabulary.

For the wearer, the value is in the handwork as much as the materials. That is the craft Hermès is selling at £79,000.

The Arceau Cheval Natté reinforces a broader point we have made in our coverage of watches jewelry: at the top of the market, the dial has become the point of differentiation, not the movement beneath it. Here the H1912 calibre is competent and in-house, but the story is the surface.

Hermès is among the names we track for the most popular luxury brands online, and its leather goods remain the ceiling for the category, from the Birkin to the Bolide in our guide to buying a Hermès handbag. A watch like this extends that same rarity logic into horology.

The Arceau shape itself is the through-line. Henri d'Origny's 1978 case has proven flexible enough to carry straw, wood and now silk marquetry, and its stirrup asymmetry keeps it recognisable from across a room. That continuity is part of why the maison can command £79,000 for a time-only watch.

Hermès has not stated how many pieces of the Cheval Natté will be made, only that it is a limited edition. Enquiries go through the house's own channel rather than through boutiques at large, which is the usual signal that production will be small and allocated quietly.

Delivery timing has not been announced, and the maison treats the piece as one to request rather than one to browse, in keeping with its scarcity-driven model.