Introducing The Hermes Slim d’Hermes Les Zebres de Tanzanie Watches

Hermes regularly surprises and delights us with the magic it works for its artistic watches. Time and again we have witnessed this brand’s incredible prowess with wood marquetry, stone marquetry, enamel work and more. Now, however, the brand takes us to all new heights with the alluring  Hermes Slim d’Hermes “Les Zebres de Tanzanie” watch — made using leather marquetry and champleve enamel painting.

The dial motif, like many of the Hermes animal dials, are inspired by the collection of the same name originally designed in 2010 by French artist Yves-Marie de Malleray. His unique form of bas-relief combined with engraving and painting has garnered him an incredible following of nature lovers. His animal world works are particularly majestic and beautiful, as he captures their essence in exotic ways that grab the soul. His incredible scenes are regularly captured on Hermes works, including this masterful 18-karat white gold watch.

For this dial, the emphasis is on the magnificent striped coat of the zebra. By combining champleve’ and miniature enameling with the fine art of leather marquetry, Hermes interprets the zebra’s beauty in a limited edition of fine art for the wrist.  The center full-body zebra is hand painted and champleve’ enameled with black and white stripes. The other colorful stripes surrounding the zebra are made of hand-cut and hand-fitted leather inlays that are placed atop the dial plate. Before the leather is applied, the dial is painted and fired multiple times, and then hand-polished. It is only then that the stripes are applied using a fine brush and enamel powders. In all, it takes 26 painstaking hours of hand workmanship to create a single dial.

 

The slender baton-type hands are then added to the dial, with matt and shiny surfaces in taupe and graphite colors. It is affixed to the watch, whose ultra-thin case and angled lugs enhance the nature motif. The Slim d’ Hermes Zebras watch is powered by the Manufacture Hermes H 1950 ultra-thin movement with micro-rotor.  Just 12 pieces will be made of each, retailing for about $52,200.