One of the most high-profile luxury maisons to join the SIHH for the first time in 2018, Hermès chose to highlight not an unexpected complication, like 2015’s Slim d’Hermès Perpetual Calendar, but a revamped version of a modernist design-oriented piece first unveiled in 2010, the square-cased Hermès Carré H.

Designed by French architect and industrial designer Marc Berthier, the Carré H (carré is French for “square;” three guesses what the “H” stands for) was nicknamed “the architect’s watch” for its right angles and geometrical shapes. For the new model, Hermès enlarged the case by a few millimeters, bringing it from 36.5 mm x 36.5 mm to 38 mm x 38 mm. The edges of the case, made of polished and micro-bead-blasted 316L stainless steel (as opposed to the original’s titanium), have been softened, with a curved profile and a cylindrical anti-glare-treated sapphire crystal over the dial.
The dial ? in dark gray or black ? offers even more aesthetic complexity than that on the 2010 version, with an opaline center enhanced with right-angled guilloché, a finely grained chapter ring, and an outer rim with either an opaline or sunburst finish. The distinctive, faceted, double-digit Arabic numerals are in an exclusive font and coated with Super-LumiNova, as are the rhodium-plated hour and minute hands. The central seconds hand, with its curved, sweeping counterweight, is either yellow (on the gray-dialed model) or...