The Hermes Baby

A portable built for travelling

The Hermes Baby left the Paillard workshops in Yverdon-les-Bains, Switzerland, in 1935. The brief was one sentence long: a real typewriter, flat and light enough to travel. The result weighs around three and a half kilos and, once closed, lies flat enough to slide into a suitcase.

It followed war correspondents, students and writers on the move. Sold under other names depending on the market — Rocket in the English-speaking world, Media for some series — it stayed in production for decades, with painted metal bodies at first and plastic on the later runs.

What it feels like to type on

The key travel is short, the strike crisp and fast. It is a minimalist machine: no tabulator on most versions, the essentials and nothing else. That simplicity is exactly what makes it pleasant day to day — there is nothing between you and the page.

With a two-colour ribbon, the selector switches from black to red. The sound, dry and clear, is part of the pleasure: it is one of the most recognisable typewriters by ear alone.

Which Hermes Baby to choose

Colour drives most of the choice: sea green, grey, white, black, and occasionally rarer shades. They correspond to different production runs without meaningfully changing the mechanics.

The decisive point is the keyboard. A Hermes Baby sold in Switzerland or Germany is often QWERTZ, one made for the French market AZERTY. We state the layout on every listing, because it is what changes everything in use.

What we check in the workshop

• Body removed and full cleaning of the segment, where the typebars seize.
• Degreasing and re-lubrication of the pivots, adjustment of the typing action and line spacing.
• Carriage checked: travel, return, end-of-line escapement.
• Condition of the rubber platen, often hardened by time.
• A new ribbon fitted, then a full page typed, letter by letter.

The right ribbon

Every machine leaves with a new ribbon fitted. When the time comes to change it, we stock ribbons that fit this model — ordinary spools will not always do.

See the compatible ribbon