Hermès launched its enamel bangles in 1976 as a way of carrying its silk scarf designs onto jewellery. According to Sotheby's, the first bangles were based on the Grand Apparat print, a scarf design by Jacques Eudel, and the line has since been renewed every season, usually with motifs taken from Hermès carrés.
The bangles combine coloured enamel with gold-plated, palladium-plated or rose-gold-plated metal, and come in four widths: extra wide, wide, narrow and extra narrow. Sotheby's describes them as unusually collectable, partly because new prints and colours keep appearing.
The enamel bangle is closely linked to the house's silk scarf, introduced in 1937 by Robert Dumas, and to its other enamel pieces such as the H bracelet of 2000. Like the scarves, the bangles trade widely on the resale market.