The venerable watch and jewellery maison of Cartier is a leading revenue generator in the Richemont stable, by some considerable margin. As a result, Cartier's booths occupy a significant portion of the SIHH real estate, taking up nearly a quarter of available floor space.
While their spectacular high jewellery pièces uniques were understandably given pride of place in the exterior display windows and foyer cabinets, it was Cartier's watches I came to see and photograph. Let's start with a look at some lovely ladies' fashion pieces from the new Captive de Cartier range.
Cartier have given the large oval-shaped case of this new range a subtle wrist-hugging curvature which makes for some nice lines. Whether it would look this good on a princess's wrist, however, is anyone's guess - there were no princesses on hand to act as models.
Available in rose gold and rhodium-plated white gold, the XL model has a long axis diameter of 50mm. The watches are fitted with a quartz movement.
Naturally, there is a pavé dial version set into white gold, which boosts the total weight of diamonds up from 4.1 to an impressive 6.1 Carats -
There's more sparklers on the way, but first, let's turn our attention to the relatively bling-free zone of the all-new Calibre de Cartier men's watch range.
Cartier have paid considerable attention to getting the details right on the new Calibre de Cartier design, making it available in either steel or pink gold cases, with a variety of dial colours. There's also a steel version with pink gold bezel.
The dial design is bold and highly legible, and incorporates an easily recognisable strand of Cartier DNA in the form of an oversized roman XII
The pink gold version can also be ordered with a very fashionable chocolate brown dial
For my tastes, the most successful version was in steel with a black dial
The Calibre de Cartier's 42mm case features a mixture of polished brushed surfaces, a bold and highly legible dial design, and a rugged, masculine profile imparted by chunky lugs and crown protector. Note also the faceted crown cabochon and internal fluting on the bezel - subtle touches of luxury in an otherwise no-nonsense design.
All Calibre de Cartier watches are fitted with an all-new manufacture movement, the Cartier cal. 1904 PS MC, which offers a bi-directional pawl self-winding system, hacking seconds, 48 hours' power reserve from two barrels, and finishing in Côtes de Genève on the bridges and rotor, and perlage on the mainplate.
This new men's watch from Cartier is obviously designed to fill a gap in their range. It's a handsome men's watch in the luxury sports category, striking a fine balance between ruggedness and finesse, which should offer considerable appeal to upwardly mobile executive males in their 30s and 40s who like wearing brand-name accessories. Of course, that's already quite a crowded segment, and I wish Cartier luck.
Of more interest to collectors and movement aficionadi are several new releases in Cartier's "Fine Watchmaking" collection, all with innovative manufacture movements. The development of in-house calibres is a strong new direction for Cartier, and this year sees the release of five new movements housed within nine different models.
First up is the Rotonde de Cartier Astrotourbillon, whose cal. 9451MC movement sports a number of interesting features
The Astrotourbillon features a large, centrally-mounted tourbillon cage which rotates on a plane between two guillochéd dial elements. The escapement is mounted eccentrically on this cage, which rotates on its axis once per minute, thus allowing it to double as a central-seconds hand
The large size of the Astrotourbillon's cage necessitates the use of weight-saving titanium for its construction; in order to balance the offset escapement, a platinum counterweight is deployed at the opposite end of the cage, just visible here under the central raised dial platform
There's not a lot to see on the back of this movement, but what there is, is attractively laid out and well-finished
One of Cartier's most intriguing releases last year was a watch whose movement bridges double as a skeletonised roman-numeral dial. This clever design idea has been modified into a round configuration, graced with a tourbillon, and thus morphed into cal. 9455MC, which forms the heart of the Rotonde de Cartier Skeleton Flying Tourbillon
In fact I find the back of this watch far more appealing than the front, which I'm sure was not the intention
Last year's Santos 100 Skeleton has now been released in a smaller version, the Santos Dumont Skeleton, this time in white gold instead of palladium.
The smaller case makes this watch's movement appear larger and better-balanced, which is a good thing aesthetically in my humble opinion
The transparency of this watch's design allows light to play on its interior surfaces in unexpected ways
Less successful in my eyes is the Rotonde de Cartier "Dürer's Folium Second", whose wandering seconds hand follows a looping track across the watch's dial
This oh-so-clever seconds display is thus rendered useless, due to its extreme illegibility. Again, this is a watch I would rather view from behind - for all the wrong reasons.
Much more appealing is the Rotonde de Cartier Jumping Hours, a new release which pays tribute to a 1929 Cartier pocket watch. With a jumping hours window at 12 o'clock and a rotating disc for the minutes display, the Jumping Hours can truly proclaim "Look, Ma! No hands!"
Available in both white gold and rose gold, this is an especially elegant and classic design which I predict will be a big success for Cartier in 2010.
Its movement features some very attractive decoration on the bridges. All in all, quite a beautiful piece
If you liked my shots of the new Calibre de Cartier men's watches, but lamented their lack of inspirational innards, you might fancy this next piece. It's the Calibre de Cartier Flying Tourbillon, released in both pink and white gold versions
Cartier have also squeezed last year's Chronocentral movement into the new Calibre de Cartier case. This is a very appealing dial design indeed, and if I had my choice of Calibre watches, this is the one that would get the guernsey
Rounding off the new releases in Cartier's Fine Watchmaking collection is the new Tortue Perpetual Calendar, with openworked dial and cal. 9422MC manufacture movement, whose classic Tortue case comes in 18K pink or white gold
This is certainly an attractive watch, but again, it suffers somewhat from legibility problems (which, admittedly, seem to plague many perpetuals)
The caseback features a round sapphire window, with a fairly standard-looking view of the movement bridges and rotor - nicely finished of course, but this is one watch which in my opinion might have worked better with a solid caseback
The WG version is to my eyes more appealing than the PG
"Yes, yes", I hear you all crying, with much wailing and gnashing of teeth, "that's all very good and well...but you promised us more bling. Where's our bling?" Fear not, for I have saved the best until last: the stunning (if rather awkwardly named) Pasha de Cartier 42mm Skeleton Watch with Panther Decor.
This gorgeous creation features a panther's head in diamond-set white gold with emerald eyes, in a 42mm white gold case
The incredible thing about this watch is the way its skeletonisation has been done. Turning it over, we can see that the movement bridges are themselves formed into the shape of a panther's head
I'm not sure whether cal. 9613MC is a skeletonised version of an existing Cartier movement - its architecture does look rather similar to that of the Jumping Hours - but to skeletonise the bridges in such creative fashion is a major feat, combining skilled watchmaking with aesthetic finesse in a daringly innovative way.
This is not a watch I'd wear myself, but it's an impressive achievement, far more beautiful in the metal than in my photos. I was told that a truly lengthy and arduous development process was needed to bring this design to fruition, and due to the extreme difficulty in crafting and then gem-setting these elaborate bridges, only a handful of Panthers will be made. Better get your orders in quickly!
Tony P
watchprosite.com
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