How Apple Partnered with Hermès for the Apple Watch

In an exclusive story, the Wall Street Journal details on how both Apple and Hermès got together in order to create the limited edition Hermès Apple Watch that we saw at this years Fall iPhone 6s keynote. According to the report, the deal was made over lunch between none other than Jony Ive and Hermès artistic director Pierre-Alexis Dumas in Paris, last October.

Part of what makes this story interesting is that Ive appreantely revealed the company’s plans for the Apple Watch before it was announced to Dumas. Ive himself said that “It’s something highly unusual for Apple to do—to talk about an unannounced project.”

One of the interesting things about the Hermès Apple Watch is that for the first time, Apple has allowed a company to create a face that isn’t shipped with the Apple Watch, not even the gold Apple Watch Edition. The bands themselves, which are made in France, are not available for individual purchase and took some time to get right according to Ive. In one instance, the company had to modify the the Double Tour band because the second loop would sometimes slip under the Watch body and interfere with the built-in heart rate monitor. To fix this, Hermès padded up the middle of the second loop, a solution that use actually been used in Hermès bags for quite some time.

Apple Watch Hermès sales will begin on October 5 with a starting price of $1100 for the 38mm Single Tour model, going up to $1500 for the 42mm with Cuff. You can get more info here.