The Ermeto was Hermès' first real step into timekeeping. Christie's dates the Hermès Ermeto to 1928 and describes it as made in collaboration with Swiss watchmakers; Hermès did not make watches itself until it set up La Montre Hermès in Switzerland in 1978.
The watch itself was a Movado design. The Ermeto, from the Greek for 'sealed', was a pocket or purse watch that Movado of La Chaux-de-Fonds introduced in 1926, using a sliding case patented by the Le Locle case maker Huguenin Frères. The two halves of the case slide apart to reveal the dial and close again to protect it from dust, rain and knocks. From 1927 onwards, most Ermetos also wound themselves: racks inside the case turn the winding stem each time the case is opened, and each opening was designed to give about four hours of running time. The model won the Grand Prix at the 1929 Barcelona International Exposition.
Movado sold the Ermeto through leading houses, with Hermès as its partner in France and Tiffany & Co. in the United States, and examples carry the Hermès name on the dial. Movado made the Ermeto until 1985.