Why an Hermès Evening Watch Spent a Day in The Rain at The 2026 US Open

Despite being an island, blue isn't the first color that comes to mind when picturing New York City. Brown, sure, gray, perhaps. But not blue.

And yet, blue proved the pervasive color of my most recent few days in the city. It began at the William Vale, on the 20th floor in a Manhattan View Corner Suite with a wraparound balcony, where uninterrupted views of Manhattan and the East River, admittedly more silver than blue, gave me both skyline and sky. When the property opened roughly a decade ago, it was lauded for its sizable balconies. During my years living in New York, I leaned more toward work from fire escape than work from balcony, but the latter turned out far more pleasant.

To witness a thunderstorm cloud the sky, pass across the skyline and clear was altogether unfamiliar until I spent the morning watching it dance above my laptop screen.

The original Slim d'Hermès debuted the year before the hotel opened. Earlier this year, the maison released the Slim d'Hermès Squelette Lune Platinum on a Bleu Abysse Matte Alligator strap ($42,450). The 39.5 mm titanium and platinum case, with a bezel in the same metals, leaves the movement visible. Breathing room, much like a balcony on a city hotel.

Strapping it on my wrist, I couldn't help but notice not only the shades of blue but the detailed openworked dial, complete with a double moon. To my eye, the titanium sibling with a Gris Étains Matte Alligator strap ($25,500) showcased greater intricacies of the dial, but the Bleu Abysse proved true to its name.

Over those days I'd catch myself staring straight into that abyss. The first time was on the subway en route to the US Open. If Los Angeles has a season in the form of awards, as many quip, New York has an open season in the form of tennis. Just ask the programmers behind hotel packages, restaurant beverages and any kind of transportation schedule, from helicopters to the LIRR.

Rolex has been the tournament's Official Timekeeper since 2018, and its clocks keep time courtside. The suites in Arthur Ashe Stadium were significantly redone and expanded as part of an $800 million renovation unveiled at the 2026 US Open, but I favored the outside courts, where I watched Lorenzo Musetti take down Arthur Fery in the Grandstand, and Jelena Ostapenko stay warm as her match against Tatjana Maria on Court 11 was delayed, then postponed because of rain (although it was more of a perpetual sheet of mist).

Fun fact: US Open courts were green until 2005, when the surface inside the lines was repainted blue for contrast against the optic yellow ball. The scheme survived the 2020 switch from DecoTurf to Laykold and further exists to be legible from the 300 level of Arthur Ashe at night and on television. Whereas the Hermès blue exists to be legible from about eighteen inches, in a stadium where checking a phone for the time means losing the point.

More discreet, a glance at the watch under the lights told me the time without breaking the rhythm of the volley. Against my skin the strap immediately felt soft and supple, no stiffness, no break-in. The watch had presence without weight, rendering it comfortable rather than overwhelming.

Around the same time as green courts became blue in Queens two decades ago, Hermès took a 25 percent stake in Vaucher Manufacture Fleurier. The Sandoz Family Foundation holds the rest and also owns Parmigiani Fleurier, and the H1953 (found inside the Slim d'Hermès Squelette Lune Platinum) is Hermès's own version of a Vaucher ultra-thin skeletonized automatic. At 3.57 millimeters tall and 30 millimeters wide, it has 178 components and 29 jewels, is wound by a micro-rotor rather than a full one, runs at 21,600 vph with a 48-hour reserve, and has bridges that are diamond-cut and bead-blasted in a blue-toned treatment matching the dial.

Back to tennis.

The day ticket for the US Open remains valid as long as its holder is through the gates before 6 p.m. Although I missed Taylor Fritz's straight-sets win over 18-year-old wild card Darwin Blanch, I did see the one-two excellence of Gaël Monfils, on his 40th birthday, defeating Adolfo Daniel Vallejo and then Alex Eala beating Mary Stoiana. The duo of evening matches in Louis Armstrong Stadium played against the rain clapping so hard on the roof that the umpire once mistakenly asked it to calm down, thinking it applause.

Anyone who has lived in New York long enough, or traveled to the city with enough frequency, has a story about the comical disaster that is overnight MTA subway work. Night had called it a day by the time I departed the US Open, and what followed was chaos: more rain delays, trains rerouted onto alternate tracks until they quit entirely. A seven-block stroll in a squall, because running when it’s raining that hard will neither get me there faster nor drier. By then the dress watch was stowed under my shirt and the balcony of the William Vale was doused in water.

Beneath the shirt, the blue kept going. It had another 48 hours in it. I did not.