Hermès honours the ancient art of straw marquetry, a form of expertise that has become extremely rare, with these two beautifully dialed watches.

Marquetry (also spelled as marqueterie) is the art and craft of applying pieces of veneer to a structure to form decorative patterns, designs or pictures.

Presented for the first time on a watch dial, the Hermès Arceau Marqueterie de Paille watches reflect a highly complex miniaturisation of the marquetry technique.

French fashion house Hermés have created a luxurious chess set as part of their Spring-Summer 2012 collection.

The hand-sculpted set is carved from Brazilian rosewood and mahogany, laid out on a 95cm board made from Clemence taurillon leather.

The Autumn/Winter 2011 campaign of Hermes is shot by legendary photographer Nick Knight, featuring Alana Zimmer and Isaac Carew.

The campaign reinterprets the artisan tradition and hand-craft synonymous with Hermès for the twenty-first century.

Hermès has launched a new collection dubbed “Petit h”, a series of “unidentified poetic objects” formed from defective inventory and factory-floor leftovers.

Various artists have created a series of one-of-a-kind handcrafted accessories and toys ranging from leather stuffed animals to porcelain beaded bracelets.

The items are part of the Petit h collection, which is being presented at the Madison Avenue store in New York from November 2 to 23.

Jean-Claude Ellena is a perfumer who never wears perfume, whose tools are pen, paper and memory, and who sees his work as “nose” for the French luxury house Hermes as that of a “scent writer”.

“In a perfect world, I wish perfumes were never worn at all,” smiled the 64-year-old master perfumer as he welcomed AFP to the Hermes workshop, in the pine-clad hills above the bay of Antibes on the Mediterranean coast.

Ellena sees his perfumes as “artworks” — fine art that has sent annual sales at Hermes’ perfume division soaring from 65 million euros when he joined in 2004, to 138 million euros last year.

French luxury goods maker Hermes has launched a limited edition Indian sari range to “connect” with Indian culture as it target buyers in new markets.

Indian women may wear Western dress to the office during the day but for weddings and other formal occasions they often prefer to wear six-yard (five and a half metre) elegantly draped saris, reflecting the strong pull of tradition.

“This is part of our effort to connect to India’s culture and to the tradition of elegance of Indian women,” Bertrand Michaud, president of Hermes India, told AFP.