“Why Japan?” proposes Dumas later that day after lunch. Hermès hates the word, preferring to label itself as a craft house rather than a purveyor of ‘luxury’, but right now as I fill my lungs with the damp scent of the adjacent forest, white-knuckling myself through the social media ban (how very counter-culture), there really is no better descriptor. The knowledge that my phone is totally out of range feels liberating. Eyes closed, I feel the sand sieve through my fingers. It’s taken me 11 hours and three flights-each plane getting successively smaller-to get to this remote island from Singapore but some guests have travelled for considerably longer, journeying for more than 24 hours from as far as Paris and New York.
Hermès and Apple have invited a select group of 14 international journalists to join Pierre-Alexis Dumas (executive vice-president and artistic director for Hermès) and Jony Ive (chief design officer for Apple) for a secret retreat in Yakushima to celebrate the recent launch of the Hermès Apple Watch Series 4. I’m seated on a circular rattan mat on a cobbled stone beach-where a freshwater river meets the sea-on the southern Japanese island of Yakushima and, although I’m told by our meditation instructor to “focus on my breath”, my mind keeps throwing up the same question: what on Earth am I doing here? Any attempt to dox users will result in a ban.The sound of trickling water to my left, the rhythmic crashing of waves to my right, a fresh ocean breeze caressing my face and morning sunshine warming my cheeks. Breaking this rule will incur a 2-week ban, followed by a permanent ban for repeat offenders. Do not discriminate against or abuse other members. Furthermore, posts that are generic AppleWatch band/case combinations, common AppleWatch configurations or AppleWatch boxes should not be posted.
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