New Hermès Apple accessories have been announced in the ‘Spring Loaded' Event broadcast from Apple Park on 20 April 2021. They comprise a leather bag charm, luggage tag and key ring for the new hero product of Apple's spring launch, the much rumoured Apple AirTags. These small, circular tile-like item trackers will work with the company’s existing software, allowing you to track objects – from your luggage, to keys to your wallet – within Apple’s ‘Find My' app.
Apple aficionados can order AirTags, alongside their covetable leather accessories, from 23 April 2021 – but more on this later.
Apple and Hermès: a history of iPadding
The Hermès / Apple relationship first blossomed following some Wallpaper* matchmaking back in 2010, when Hermès created a leather iPad case, for the first generation iPad for our Wallpaper* Handmade exhibition.
The collaboration continued to bloom. In 2019, the French maison and the US tech-titan joined forces to release the Apple Watch Hermès Series 4. ‘We are a manufacturing species, we make tools and we make tools to make objects. It is part of our culture and it is part of what makes us human,’ Hermès creative director Pierre-Alexis Dumas said at the time, hailing ‘technocraft' (technology-meets-craftmanship) as the holy grail of modern design. Their buttersoft leather straps make some of the best Apple watch bands.
The first iPad case
From the archive: iPad case and Bose headphone case in ‘Rouge Hermes’-coloured Swift calfskin, both special order, by Hermes. iPad (first generation) by Apple. QuietComfort 3 Acoustic Noise Cancelling Headphones, by Bose. As originally featured in the August 2010 Issue of Wallpaper*
In its first iteration, Hermès' iPad envelope was made of two layers of Swift calfskin, hand saddle-stitched over a layer of protective padding.
Wallpaper's resident quality maniac-at-large Nick Vinson lauded this pioneering form of technocraft back in 2010. ‘As many of us are a touch OCD here at Wallpaper* HQ, we knew we’d need to keep our new toy in a suitably smart case,’ he wrote. ‘Bring on a hand-crafted envelope by Hermès.’
From the archive: For this interpretation of the Wallpaper* asterisk, holes were marked out with a pricking iron before the two pieces of leather were hand saddle-stitched together, with an awl to pierce them, a pair of needles, more beeswax and linen thread. As originally featured in the August 2010 Issue of Wallpaper*.
A few weeks after taking a tour of the Wallpaper* Handmade exhibition in Milan in April 2010, Pierre-Alexis Dumas shipped us an orange box. Inside was this unsolicited addition (pictured above), which we featured in the August 2010 Handmade issue. With the company’s usual dedication to handmade perfection, fawn-coloured Barenia calfskin was hand cut, and its edges first rounded with a heated tool, then sanded and coated with a dye before being polished with beeswax.
AirTags: tiny tech meets high craft
The new collection builds on this shared admiration of materials, and a maintained focus on craftsmanship – but this is leather detailing in miniature. The small bag charm, luggage tag and key ring, which were first displayed at the ‘Spring Loaded' Event in classic Hermès colourways – are designed to be highly portable, lightweight, to fit comfortably and seamlessly onto your luggage or keychain.
Apple Airtag Hermès travel tag in Barenia calfskin
Carolyn Wolfman-Estrada, Apple iPhone System’s engineering program manager described the Hermès AirTag collaboration as ‘a special handcrafted collection'. It also features an Hermès engraving on the AirTag itself.
The aim of this tiny piece of tech, which is made all the more special by its Barenia calfskin enclosures, is to enhance the usability of the FindMy app, ensuring that whatever your AirTag is attached to – in theory, any object of value to you – can be easily located. Apple has fitted the lightweight, water-resistant and dust-resistant trackable circles with speakers to make the search even easier, with a small cover that makes it simple to change the battery.
The AirTags will cost $29 apiece, with a four-pack of AirTags costing $99.
Apple AirTags
Get the jump
Also announced for Spring: new Hermès Apple Watch bands, inspired by show jumping. These water-resistant, nylon-weave bands can be used for open water swimming, and you can match this band with any stainless steel Apple Watch case (Series 6 or previous versions).
These bold bands are available to preorder now, and will begin shipping on 27 April 2021.
Apple Watch Hermes Series 6 woven jumping band, in Blue Saphire and Orange
INFORMATION
-
Explore the design and history of the humble camping tent in a new book‘The Camping Tent’ by Typologie reframes a familiar object, revealing its complexity and cultural weight – and invites us to look at it anew
-
Can happiness be designed? A Helsinki exhibition looks for an answer‘Happiness is both deeply personal and undeniably collective,’ says curator Anniina Koivu, whose exhibition explored the perfect equation for happiness at Helsinki Design Week 2025
-
Is the MG Cyberster an electrifying sports car or a hefty grand tourer? In truth, it’s a bit of bothMG returns to its roots, sort of, with a sporting two-seater that electrifies the sector and points to a bolder design future for the Chinese-owned brand
-
The Apple iPhone Air leads the company’s round of autumn product launchesThe new Apple iPhone 17 range boasts better cameras, more memory and more Apple Silicon. It launched alongside new Apple Watches, new AirPods and the remarkable iPhone Air. We explore out the key innovations and products
-
The new Plaud Note Pro deploys AI to transform the spoken word into searchable dataThe Note Pro promises full-on conversational AI, a pocketable device that can capture roundtable chats and correctly attribute speakers and action points. Help or hindrance?
-
The Hasselblad X2D II 100C takes the iconic camera brand to a new level of sophisticationSweden’s most sophisticated camera manufacturer announces a new flagship medium-format digital camera and zoom lens
-
For sale: core memories and rare hardware from the early days of Apple Computer‘Steve Jobs and the Apple Revolution’ brings together a clutch of computer collectables from the dawn of Silicon Valley
-
Lava Studio is a sleek studio-in-a-box for guitarists seeking the ultimate portable toolLava Music's new Studio is an elegant touchscreen-powered guitar effects unit with multi-track recording, AI tips and tricks and a powerful integrated speaker
-
The best over-ear headphones, tested by expertsThis round up of the best over-ear headphones reveals how leading products from Apple, Bose, Focal, Sennheiser, and Sony matched up when we put them to the test
-
The Sinclair name is back, attached to a pocket-sized games console with an educational edgeGrant Sinclair’s name is freighted with early computing history. Wallpaper* tapped up the British inventor to find out more about his new GamerCard console and other innovation
-
Tuneshine is a new way of bringing back the lost art of the album coverThe compact Tuneshine screen uses LED tech to illuminate the artwork of whatever you’re currently streaming
