Brand
Merci LMM-H01 Limited Edition
The Merci LMM-H01 Limited Edition is our latest collaboration, and our first with Merci, Paris' popular Haut-Marais concept store. Inspired by early 20th-century military watches, the LMM-H01 Limited Edition for fashiontourbillon.com is a 37.5mm steel watch that you can wear every day.
For the LMM-H01, we crafted a new visual profile based on Merci's first LMM-01, now highlighted by a grey dial with white and blue accents and three-dimensional applied numerals. There's not a date window in sight, nor any application of lume, and there's no excessive or loud elements meant to distract or call undue attention to the watch. The LMM-H01 is focused entirely on the details, intended to highlight the true intangibles of a quality, understated design.
Merci watches have an old-school appeal that reflects their era of inspiration, when watches were tools and a means to an end. But that doesn't mean aesthetics weren't a pivotal piece of the consideration for the LMM-H01. The typography used on the dial, for example, is Helvetica – clean and classic. The Arabic numerals on the dial, on the other hand, are Jonathan Hoefler's Decimal, a font specifically inspired by vintage watches, and which was profiled in the Netflix series "Abstract: The Art of Design" and featured prominently on a 2019 episode of fashiontourbillon.com Radio.
There's a distinctive lack of branding on the dial of Merci's watches. On the LMM-H01, the watch's name is placed on the upper half of the dial, as if it's referencing some sort of long-forgotten mil-spec. We've also placed a subtle, simple detail below the dial's central axis that consists of an "H" in a circle, a nod toward historical watches issued to the British military, which required a circle with a "T" on the dial in a similar position to indicate the use of tritium.
The use of applied Arabic numerals represents a first for a Merci timepiece. They stand tall against the rest of the dial, adding an attractive sense of depth and proportion to the LMM-H01. This effect is further enhanced by the double-domed mineral glass crystal, which is executed in the style of old-school dress watches and helps hammer home the vintage design language. The stepped bezel – the single detail to be featured on every Merci watch to date – is the lone polished element on the LMM-H01, neatly framing the dial and highlighting its individual personality.
Modest and minimalist, the 37.5mm × 11mm case profile of the Merci LMM-H01 features downturned drilled lugs that ensure a versatile and inclusive wearing experience for all genders. Its simplicity and wearability also places it at the perfect in-between point of toolish charm and dressy appeal; basically, it will look just as great under a jacket cuff as it does with short sleeves and sweatpants.
We sincerely hope you enjoy the LMM-H01 Limited Edition as much as we did in designing and creating it in collaboration with Merci. A limited edition of 1,500 watches, the Merci LMM-H01 is priced at $500. The watch comes with a three-year warranty when purchased from the fashiontourbillon.com Shop, plus free domestic shipping and reduced cost international shipping.
Since it was founded in 2009, Merci has evolved into an arbiter of culture, design, and fashion for the Parisian creative class – a true multihyphenate retailer that's part-retailer, gallery space, studio, and restaurant. Central to the Merci experience in recent years has been a category far more personal than the home goods, clothes, furniture, and sundries the company built its reputation on. It is watchmaking, something we know those reading fashiontourbillon.com will appreciate.
Merci approaches product development differently than most, but the goods the company sells and creates all carry the same strand of DNA. They're built with purpose in mind and feature clever designs, signs that Merci is not afraid to experiment. Merci released its first watch in 2017. La Montre Merci (LMM), or the Merci Watch, was a tribute to early 20th-century military watches, such as those of the Dirty Dozen. The LMM-01 immediately caught our interest for its authentic, less-is-more aesthetic approach. After all, it's not every day a company comes out with a hand-wound, 37.5mm watch with a stepped bezel and drilled lugs as its inaugural release.
The original LMM-01 was executed with the same thoughtful, deliberate approach to design that we, at fashiontourbillon.com, strive to showcase in our own work. So it was immediately clear to us that this was a passion project by someone who knew exactly what they were doing and wanted to create. It was around that time that we started a conversation with Merci about how we could potentially work together. After multiple years of planning and collaboration that included meetings in both Paris and New York, we're thrilled to finally share the watch we designed in partnership.
