hermès frames time as theater at Watches and Wonders 2026
At Watches and Wonders Geneva 2026, Hermès frames time as a performative medium, staging its latest horological releases within a kinetic scenography by Jean-Simon Roch. Conceived as a mobile installation where watchmaking mechanics interact with theatrical machinery, the project positions movement as narrative. Within this shifting environment, the maison unveils three new skeleton timepieces: Hermès H08 Squelette, Arceau Samarcande, and Slim d’Hermès Squelette Lune, each exposing its inner workings like apertures into a hidden temporal world.
Composer Pierre Ronin scores a soundscape that animates the scenography, transforming it into a vast string instrument. Together, the installation reflects how Hermès thinks about time: not as something to be measured or ordered, but as a space for emotion, spontaneity, and recreation.
all images by Team WHAAAT!, unless stated otherwise
Jean-Simon Roch designs a stage of shifting mechanisms
French artist Jean-Simon Roch’s scenography for Hermès at Watches and Wonders Geneva 2026 operates as a hybrid between theater wings and animated machinery. A tall wooden structure unfolds as an openworked frame, weaving threads of time through layers of transparency and depth. Its porous construction directs the gaze inward, echoing the logic of the house’s skeleton watches, where structure becomes ornament. Interior and exterior collapse into one, turning the installation into a spatial mechanism.
Movement permeates every element. Ropes and pulleys rise and fall, counterweights trace repetitive cycles, and rotating wheels produce a subtle mechanical rhythm. The installation reads as a large-scale automaton, continuously reconfiguring itself. Along its edges, miniature theater-like vitrines present the watches, reinforcing the idea of horology as staged spectacle.
ropes and pulleys activate the scenographic choreography | image ©designboom
when scenography becomes instrument
At the center, a fragmented equestrian figure gradually emerges, interlaced with shifting geometric forms. The horse motif, engraved by Gianpaolo Pagni, appears in partial glimpses through moving wooden panels that alternately conceal and reveal it. This choreography of appearance and disappearance blurs the boundary between stage and backstage, aligning with Hermès’ recurring equestrian iconography while introducing a temporal dimension of suspense.
The installation extends beyond the visual into a composed sonic environment developed in collaboration with Pierre Ronin. Mechanical sounds are translated into a fluctuating score, where cyclical rhythms shift into lighter improvisations. The scenography effectively becomes a large resonant instrument, synchronizing motion and sound into a single temporal experience.
the installation rises as a modular wooden tower
opening onto the invisible
The three novelties introduced at Geneva each treat skeletonization as both a technical achievement and a form of visual language, the movement structure appearing as a constantly changing backdrop where the eye travels between transparency and depth.
The Hermès H08 Squelette houses the new H1978 S skeletonized titanium caliber, 168 components, and a 60-hour power reserve within a 39-millimeter cushion-shaped DLC-treated titanium case. Vanishing lines and interlocking gears draw the eye through the architectural layering of the movement, at once uncluttered and structural.
The Arceau Samarcande revisits the line Henri d’Origny designed in 1978, with its round case and asymmetrical stirrup-inspired lugs, now housing an Haute Horlogerie complication. A Saint-Louis crystal dial, in blue or white, is openworked into a horse’s head, revealing the H1297 skeletonized caliber beneath. The movement activates a minute repeater, its gong sounding time beneath the starry eye of the horse. The sapphire crystal caseback opens onto the minute repeater hammers and micro-rotor, the latter finely decorated with the Duc attelé motif. Housed in a 38 mm white or rose gold case, the watch traces, as Hermès puts it, a transition between two worlds where interior and exterior meet and mingle.
The Slim d’Hermès Squelette Lune extends an invitation to delve into the mysteries of time, introducing a double moon phase complication that tracks the lunar cycle from both the Northern and Southern hemispheres simultaneously.
translucent panels and suspended elements create depth between stage and backstage | image ©designboom
ropes and pulleys activate the scenographic choreography | image ©designboom
openworked wooden structure frames the installation | image ©designboom
a large-scale automaton, continuously reconfiguring itself | image ©designboom
layered display reveals Hermès’ graphic compositions within a theatrical setting | image ©designboom
geometric compositions unfold within framed apertures | image ©designboom
overhead view of rotating wooden discs and tensioned ropes translating movement into rhythm
a luminous equestrian silhouette emerges through layered screens
a timepiece appears within a shadowed niche
a wooden counterweight hangs in tension
Hermès H08 Squelette reveals its openworked movement within a sculptural display
a suspended orange sphere balances on the wooden structure
project info:
name: Hermès at Watches and Wonders Geneva 2026
visual artist: Jean-Simon Roch | @jeansimon.roch
event: Watches and Wonders 2026 | @watchesandwonders
dates: April 14th to 20th, 2026
location: Geneva, Switzerland
photographer: Team WHAAAT!
The post Hermès stages a theater of mechanics and sound at watches and wonders 2026 appeared first on designboom | architecture & design magazine.