CARTIER
THIS YEAR CARTIER FOCUSES ON THE YIN AND YANG OF DESIGN, drawing attention to the solid
structure of its skeleton movement, which contrasts with the enigma of the mysterious movement.
Thus two new watchmaking interpretations, the Skeleton Mysterious Double Tourbillon timepiece
and the Mysterious Day & Night are brought to the fore in new interpretations.
ROTONDE DE CARTIER SKELETON MYSTERIOUS
DOUBLE TOURBILLON WATCH
All of the components of the 45mm platinum Rotonde de Cartier Skeleton Mysterious Double
Tourbillon Watch (below), powered by the supremely visible caliber 9465MC, are hand finished:
bridges chamfered, flanks drawn and screw heads polished. Here the double flying tourbillon
effects a complete rotation in 60 seconds while the tourbillon cage performs a second rotation in
which each round takes five minutes. This year’s use of skeletonized bridges in the shape of Roman
numerals is truly exquisite.
ROTONDE DE CARTIER MYSTERIOUS
DAY & NIGHT WATCH
Two important complications from Cartier’s heritage, both dating from 1912, combine to create the
Rotonde de Cartier Mysterious Day & Night watch (right): the mysterious movement and the day/
night movement. The former, as you know, was created for the Model A mystery clock, while the
day/night movement was part of the well-known Comet clock (also known as the Planet Clock).
The captivating dial reveals the sun, driven from left to right by the mysterious movement, which
appears to rise in the upper half of the dial before giving way to the moon. And these heavenly
bodies in turn indicate the hours of the day and night while the retrograde minutes are displayed
on the bottom half of the dial. Driven by the caliber 9982MC, the 40mm pink or white gold watch
features radiating guilloche and a satin-brushed sunray finish on the dial.
And from the Cartier Watch Creation Studio in Paris, Cartier reconstructs the famed Crash watch
as one of five jeweled timepieces. On the new Crash, the dial is crushed, the Roman numerals are
stretched and there is a shockwave in the center. The yellow gold SIHH 2018 preview watch is
manually wound and will be made as a limited edition of 50 pieces. The other limited edition, indi-
vidually numbered jewelry watches set for 2018 include: Baignoire Débordante, Baignoire
Infinie, Baignoire Etoilée and Baignoire Interdite.
66 | INTERNATIONAL WATCH | WINTER 2018
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