Hermès' 'time travels the world' installation at watches & wonders 2022

EXPERIENCE THE WORLD OF HERMÈS TIME IN AN INSTALLATION BY SABRINA RATTÉ

On the occasion of Watches & Wonders 2022, Hermès presents Times Travels the World, an installation created in collaboration with Canadian artist Sabrina Ratté. Inspired by the new Arceau Le Temps Voyageur watch, the immersive artwork invites visitors to travel, discover, and experience the universe of Hermès time — a non-linear one.

Traveling is something that has always been inherent to the Hermès’ world. Its founding members were great travelers that would bring back many objects from their various voyages. Known for its unique watch designs, the brand makes sure every piece tells a story attached to its history and expertise.

‘For me it’s important to have a watch that tells a story, so with Arceau Le Temps Voyageur we wanted to bring together two of Hermès’ pillars: traveling and horses,’ Philippe Delhotal, creative director of Hermès Horloger, told designboom. ‘We started playing with the idea of the satellite traveling around the watch. But the creation wasn’t finished because when you talk of travel, most of the time we’re talking about this world. At Hermès we like to make things different, and we were lucky to discover a map designed in 2016 for Hermès by Jérôme Colliard and thought, this is exactly what we need. It was imaginary, it presented a dream, and it was equestrian.’

Canadian designer Sabrina Ratté at the Hermès booth at Watches & Wonders
Portrait © designboom

THE ARCEAU LE TEMPS VOYAGEUR WATCH INSPIRED THE ARTWORK

The decision to work with Sabrina Ratté was a very straight-forward one for Hermès. When they started thinking about the fair, it wasn’t clear if it was going to happen, so an artist working in the digital realm was ideal. When the fair announced it was happening physically, Sabrina had to think how to bring her digital art into the booth’s architecture, something that she has been experimenting with as of late — Ratté is currently hosting a 1,000 square-meter solo show at Paris’ Gaite Lyrique.

‘My work exists as much in the digital space as it does in the physical one,’ Sabrina Ratté told designboom while touring the Hermès booth at Watches & Wonders. ‘For me, digital art is this very tentacular medium that can be presented in so many ways, and I see so much potential in it. When Hermès contacted me last year, they showed me the watch and explained the concept, and I found my inspiration around this.’

Image © designboom

On the dial, the watch features a fictional continent imagined by Jérôme Colliard for the ‘Planisphère d’un Monde Équestre’ silk scarf. A satellite gravitates around this fantasy map, revealing Hermès’ traveling time concept. As the satellite turns above its dial, it indicates the time of 24 different time zones.

‘The imaginary continent on the dial was my main point of inspiration, which led me to think about time and space, and how technologies like watches and satellite images could interfere with our understanding of these two concepts,’ Ratté explained. ‘So I began by traveling using Google Maps and chose different satellite images based on their topography. I then took these images and treated them as paintings — I started adding colors, textures, and architecture, and like that, I created this new world.’

Arceau Le Temps Voyageur 38
Image © Joel Von Allmen

Presented throughout the booth in a colossal loop video that goes from day to night, traveling around the different worlds Ratté has created, the Time Travels the World installation forms a creative bridge between traditional skills and contemporary technologies, allowing visitors to cross time and space. With her work, the artist takes visitors from one imaginary country to another, leading them through territories transformed by her imagination, just like the Arceau Le Temps Voyageur watch does.

‘The idea of time traveling is inherent to the watch, and Google Maps helped me expand on this as you can feel you are everywhere at the same time. I wanted to create recognizable places, spaces that feel strangely familiar but at the same time dreamy and utopian. To add to this, I created some architecture inspired by the work of Superstudio.’

Surrounding the booth, 12 window displays showcase the new watches in an interactive journey Ratté created. Juxtaposed over the background videos, the watches have been placed in such a way that visitors can interact with them, creating a meditative state.

‘Bringing things to the physical world is always a challenge because I feel like I have more control in the digital sphere,’ said Ratté when telling us about the challenges she faced. ‘Building things is a great mystery to me, and this is when the great multidisciplinary Hermès team came into play — the same one that builds the stores and the catwalks. For me it was magical how everything came together.’

‘I want visitors to travel once they experience the installation, that the time they are experimenting is on a different dimension, on a different rhythm,’ Ratté concluded. ‘Once immersed, I want them to feel like time stops, or that it slows down, so that they have a different feel of time, especially in a busy place like Watches & Wonders. Time is very subjective, so that is part of the intention.’