Hermes’ New Double Tour Fine Jewellery Collection Proves Beauty In Simplicity

Sometimes, the simplest of ideas can also be the most clever. In 1998, Martin Margiela – then artistic director of Hermes – took the strap of the brand’s Cape Cod watch and made it long enough to wrap twice around the wrist. The result was the Double Tour: a design that has become almost as iconic as the timepiece itself. Now, that same idea of looping, winding and doubling back forms the basis of Hermes’s latest fine jewellery collection.

One loop becomes two. A bracelet becomes a necklace. That spirit of transformation sits at the heart of Double Tour, Hermes’s latest fine jewellery collection. Rather than treating the Double Tour watch strap as a literal reference, the maison’s creative director of fine jewellery, Pierre Hardy, uses it as a starting point to reimagine familiar styles, and inject a sense of lightness and fluidity to them. “The Double Tour is a repetitive movement, taking off without emphasis,” he explains.

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Exhibit A: the Boucle Sellier Inflexible necklace pictured above. An evolution of the Boucle Sellier – a chain-link metal bracelet with a distinctive buckle first created in 1946 – it has been rendered in silver and reworked into a single, continuous gesture to be worn around the neck instead. Meanwhile, the Crescendo necklace below is a lariat-style design with diamonds in graduated sizes, creating the impression that they are subtly moving when worn.

The Kelly Gavroche bracelet from Hermes’s Double Tour jewellery collection is an ultra-precious take on the hardware of the bag from which it gets its name: a sinuous, wrap-style design that drapes around the wrist and is fully paved in diamonds.

Also fully paved in diamonds, the Crescendo Mono earring appears to be coiling around the ear when worn, thanks to an ingenious design that combines a cuff and a modified hoop – or rather, loop – in a single piece.

Fun fact: The Nausicaa necklace was originally designed by fifth-generation Hermes scion Jean-Louis Dumas in 1971 and inspired by the horsebit – a favourite reference of the house, what with its deep equestrian roots. Reinvented here with interlocking horsebit motifs on an articulated chain, the design feels extra bold, graphic and modern.

A newish addition to the Hermes fine jewellery universe is the Chaine d’Ancre Naiade series – a softer, more feminine interpretation of the beloved Chaine d’Ancre line that was originally inspired by the anchor chains of ships. In Greek mythology, the word “naiade” refers to a water nymph, and for the Chaine d’Ancre Naiade pieces within the Double Tour collection, industrial-looking chains have largely been replaced by multiple strands of Akoya pearls in various sizes, putting a fresh and pretty spin on the nautical theme.