At Kickmaker, I was pulled into the most unexpected project of my career: a charging accessory signed by Hermès, for Apple products. My role wasn’t technical. I was with the clients, backing the engineers and the management. And what really interested me was watching the level of exchange between three worlds: Apple, Hermès and Kickmaker.
when luxury meets tech
The idea: a charging object for Apple devices, but thought through and finished like an Hermès piece. On one side, Apple’s technical rigor; on the other, the craftsmanship standard of a luxury house. Kickmaker in the middle, making the two fit into a single product without either crushing the other.
integrating Apple’s OEM charging
The technical core was integrating Apple’s OEM charging module into our hardware. Apple lets no one charge its devices any old way: you go through its official module, respect its specifications and its validation requirements. So the whole hardware design was built around that imposed building block, to integrate cleanly without ever betraying the Hermès object around it.
the level of finish
This is where the project becomes fascinating. The quality bar is Hermès’s, not a tech accessory’s.
The leather first: the same quality as the house’s leather goods, saddle stitching included.
The exterior next: brushed aluminium, CNC machined. The kind of finish you find on a luxury object, not on a charger.
And the detail I remember: the charge indicator. Originally, it’s a watch movement. A hand that rises with the battery, like a horological complication. You don’t read a percentage on a screen, you look at a hand.
the whole cycle, in France
Another point that matters: Kickmaker ran every phase in France. From POC (proof of concept) to EVT (engineering validation), to DVT (design verification), through to PVT (production validation). The full product development cycle, on site. For a French house and an object of this level, “made in France” isn’t just a selling point: it’s end-to-end quality control.
my role, and what I take from it
I didn’t design the product. I was there to support: holding the link with the clients, backing the engineers, helping on management and coordination between teams that did not play in the same league.
What I take from it is a lesson in crossed standards. Seeing how Apple frames the engineering, how Hermès frames the finish, and how a team of engineers gets the two to talk, shifts the bar of what you consider “well made”.
Cover: Hermès × Apple charging accessory, official photo (© Hermès). The other photos are my own shots of the product in development. The watch-movement image is a royalty-free illustration.