Description
Five years after the H08 defined a new visual vocabulary for Hermès Horloger — a cushion-yet-circular sports watch that read as neither Royal Oak nor Octo — the brand finally opens the dial. The Hermès H08 Squelette is the first fully openworked evolution of the line, and it arrives at Watches & Wonders 2026 as a genuine statement of manufacture credibility, showing the new in-house Calibre H1978 S through a skeletonised architecture that is as graphic and deliberate as the best of Hermès design.
The H08 has always walked the line between design object and watch, and the Squelette doubles down on the design-object side. Its floating luminous hour indices appear to hover above the movement, its rounded-square minutes track carries Hermès's house typography, and its semi-openworked hands leave the movement's bridges fully on show. It is a sports watch that, looked at from a distance, could just as easily be a sculpture.
Produced in black DLC-coated titanium with a satin-brushed ceramic bezel, the Squelette is clearly pitched at the collector who wants the Hermès quiet-luxury signal without giving up horological substance. At EUR 20,000, it slots in materially below the reference openworked sports watches from Audemars Piguet, Girard-Perregaux or Zenith — and in a silhouette that is impossible to confuse with any of them.
Design
The 39mm cushion case carries over unchanged from the standard H08, in black DLC-coated grade 5 titanium, with the hallmark satin-brushed ceramic bezel. What is new is everything visible through the sapphire crystal: the dial is now a fully openworked window onto the movement, the indices float on minimal bridges and carry blue or grey Super-LumiNova, and the hands are semi-skeletonised with luminous inserts. Two colour executions are offered at launch — one oriented around cool blue tones, the other grey. Strap options include Blue Zanzibar, Black, Dune, Vert Moyen (green), and Blue Abyss rubber, each matched to the chosen dial, and all secured by a black DLC-coated titanium folding clasp.
Case geometry aside, the movement architecture itself is what shapes the design language. The H1978 S is decorated to be seen: rhodium bridges, snailed mainplate finishing where visible, and a satinated oscillating weight sized to frame the mechanism rather than hide it. The brand's commitment to design continuity is visible everywhere — including in the choice not to add any complication beyond hours, minutes and seconds.
Specifications
- Model: Hermès H08 Squelette
- Case diameter: 39mm × 39mm (cushion)
- Case thickness: 11.69mm
- Case material: Black DLC-coated grade 5 titanium
- Bezel: Satin-brushed ceramic
- Crystal: Anti-reflective sapphire, front and caseback
- Dial: Openworked, floating blue or grey Super-LumiNova hour markers, rounded-square minutes track
- Hands: Semi-openworked with luminous inserts
- Water resistance: 100m
- Strap: Rubber (Blue Zanzibar, Black, Dune, Vert Moyen, or Blue Abyss), black DLC-coated titanium folding clasp
- Movement: Hermès Calibre H1978 S (in-house, manufacture automatic)
- Dimensions: 27mm × 4.165mm
- Components: 168
- Jewels: 26
- Frequency: 28,800 vph (4 Hz)
- Power reserve: 60 hours
- Price: EUR 20,000 (incl. VAT) / GBP 17,500
What's Exciting
The skeleton sports watch is one of the most crowded segments in luxury horology — AP Royal Oak Openworked, Hublot Big Bang Unico, Zenith Defy Skyline Skeleton, Girard-Perregaux Laureato Skeleton — and every one of those references is instantly identifiable from a metre away. The real feat here is that the H08 Squelette is too. Hermès has built a design language strong enough that a skeletonised version still reads unmistakably as an H08, not as a generic openworked sport watch. That is not trivial.
Under the dial, the H1978 S is a genuine Hermès manufacture caliber — not a rebadged Vaucher base — and this openworked execution is the first time the brand has shown the movement it has been quietly developing for three years. Against comparable openworked sport watches from the top of the pyramid, the H08 Squelette offers a titanium case, a manufacture movement, and a dominant design signature at EUR 20,000 — a specification-to-price ratio that deserves to be taken seriously.
History
Hermès Horloger was founded in 1978, a joint venture with Vaucher Manufacture Fleurier (acquired majority stake 2006), and for most of its early life produced dress-forward watches anchored by the Arceau (1978) and the Cape Cod (1991). The brand's shift toward a proper in-house sport watch began with the H08 in 2021 — a cushion-case 39mm in grade 5 titanium, styled to feel unmistakably Hermès, and the first watch designed as a holistic piece rather than a variant on an existing silhouette.
The Calibre H1978 (launched with the H08) was Hermès's first movement explicitly built for a sport watch, and the H1978 S derives from that family. For Watches & Wonders 2026, the Squelette arrives alongside the Arceau Minute Repeater (with its H1927 S movement and Saint-Louis crystal dials) — a coordinated statement from Hermès that the design studio and the manufacture are finally aligned. Five years after the H08's launch, it is now one of the most distinct design propositions in the 100m-titanium sports watch category.
Sources
- Monochrome Watches — First Look: Design Meets Horology With The New Hermès H08 Skeleton
- Fratello Watches — Hands-On: The New Hermès H08 Squelette
- Oracle of Time — Hermès Introduce H08 Squelette with First Skeleton Display
- Worn & Wound — Hermes Doubles Down on the H08 with a Skeletonized Squelette Version
- Escapement Magazine — Hermès H08 Squelette — Review
- Revolution Watch — Hermès at Watches and Wonders 2026
- Wallpaper* — Hermès presents its first skeleton H08 watch at Watches & Wonders 2026
