Martin Margiela for Hermès
Double Tour Advertising Campaign, 1998
Over the past two decades Hermès’ Double Tour wristwatch has gone through countless iterations and evolved into somewhat of a cult object.
Invented in 1997 by Martin Margiela during his first year as creative director of the Parisian house, known for its high-end leather goods and unwavering quality, the first Double Tour design consisted of Hermès’ Cape Cod watch face, created by Heri d’Origny in 1991, carefully positioned on long strip of leather with saddle stitching – a trademark of the French house – allowing the wearer to wrap the band not once, but twice around one’s wrist. The story goes that Margiela, the godfather of appropriation in the context of fashion design, got the idea from a twice-wrapped belt he created in the 1980s for his namesake label, using a long leather strap that was repurposed, previously meant to fasten a suitcase. Feeding Margiela’s strong rapport with anything vintage, the resulting design began as an old idea that was recontextualized and made entirely new again. The sophisticated yet unorthodox watch design became a favorite of the house and has been a best seller ever since.
