Cartier bridges the fine watchmaking and high jewellery

This year, the confluence of Cartier’s two founding fields – fine watchmaking and high jewellery – is the highlight of the 2016 edition of the Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie (SIHH), resulting to create extraordinary jewellery watches that mark sheer excellence on the boundaries of both worlds

With its master watchmakers and master jewellers, Cartier has stood among the luxury elite, with a strong, widely-recognised brand, sought-after creations and internationally-renowned watchmaking prowess. This year, the Maison walks into a unique creative partnership has thus been initiated between High Jewellery, with all the flamboyance of its gemstones, the power of its style and the expertise of its craft, and Fine Watchmaking, with its attention to detail and its emblematic watches and complications.

Tourbillon Mystérieux Azuré pendant watch

Here is a pendant designed by an expert hand, out of which the form of a butterfly appears amid outstretched lines and rhythmical curves. The wings are comprised of sapphires, with rows of diamonds making up the body.

At the centre of the totally transparent dial is a mysterious double tourbillon, the emblem of Cartier’s watchmaking expertise, suspended in the void. The chain of geometrical motifs set with diamonds, and adorned with a perfectly detachable 25.93-carat oval sapphire, an extraordinary jewel from Sri Lanka.

An object of incredible complexity, it embodies a form of pure jewellery in which all mechanical features remain invisible. At Cartier, that which is concealed is as impressive as what is seen, and thus the fully decorated watch movement is visible on the rear face via a sapphire back. The dazzling result can be counted in hours, or rather in months with almost 2,050 hours of work, the equivalent of 17 months of intense collaboration.

Its fully decorated Manufacture mechanical movement with manual winding, calibre 9463 MC, mysterious double tourbillon is visible on the rear face via a sapphire back of this rather unique piece.

Dragon Mystérieux

Passionately curious about distant civilisations, Cartier used dragons as motifs for watches fitted with fascinating mechanisms, combining the power of their heritage with the exceptional expertise of the Maison. This year, Cartier has brought back dragons this year with the release of animal of fantasy around a mysterious dial in a swirl of diamond-set scales.

Hailed a unique piece, the Dragon Mystérieux watch is endowed with emerald eyes and a line of onyx, housing the Manufacture mechanical movement with manual winding, calibre 9981 MC, with mystery hour and minute display, within its undulating forms. On either side, coral provides structure and rhythm to the design, even marking out the animal’s profile.

Between its horns lies a faceted cushion-shaped 23.77-carat fire opal, the stone which symbolises life, strength and energy all combined – the colours create a vibrant chromatic harmony, a veritable Cartier signature.

A worthy successor to the mystery movements that began appearing at Cartier in 1912, this sheer spectacle of time perpetuates the enigma of their complexity.

Panthère Mystérieuse pendant watch

The Panthère Mystérieuse pendant watch puts two strong symbols of the Cartier creative universe into play: The panther and the mystery movement.

At the centre of a slightly concave agate medallion, a mysterious dial displays two tiny hands that float without any attachment to the mechanism. The agate, a dark stone with subtle hues, was sculpted from a bloc of raw matter.

Meanwhile, a panther resides amid the rounded arc of the dial, bordered by an alternating sequence of diamonds and cylinders of obsidian. . The elegant silhouette and the alternately sharp or gentle curves of its slender frame are delineated by a multitude of diamonds.

Emphasising the depth and volume of the animal’s form, the gem-setting produces an effect so lifelike that the feline appears ready to turn and fix its emerald gaze. Whether motionless or preparing to pounce, the panther seems unaffected by the passing hours and the weightless progression of the watch hands within the transparent surface of the dial.

Offered as a unique piece, the Panthère Mystérieuse pendant watch further receives its prowess from the Manufacture mechanical movement with manual winding, calibre 9981 MC, with mystery hour and minute display.

Rings of Saturn motif watch

This watch is illuminated by a striking, vivid and powerful brilliance, a precious allusion to the rings of Saturn. Its black ring features jade, a fine-textured and vividly coloured material that is both deep and fragile, cut to measure. While the white rings come in shagreen paving, in which brilliant-cut and rose-cut diamonds alternate in a random composition.

On the diamond-paved ring, this unique piece’s crystal has been faceted, a jewellery technique adopted by Cartier to house the legendary calibre 101, which is considered to be the smallest manually wound mechanical movement in the world.

The rings of Saturn motif watch inscribes the infinitely small in the heart of the immensely large, in a convergence that mingles elegance and virtuosity.

Cartier à l’infini watch

Imagined as if it were as a mathematical object, this watch links black to white, with diamond settings and black lacquer motifs.

The dial of this unique piece contains a sapphire crystal slightly bevelled on the sides, and is incorporated into the bracelet with a precision to the nearest millimetre. At the centre of the case, the calibre 101 once again proves its efficiency and carries on its success as the smallest manually-wound mechanical movement in the world.

Small but with a strong presence, symmetrical yet twisted, the Cartier à l’infini watch produces a rhythmic and seductive energy through a distinctive aesthetic and watchmaking characteristics, beating with a powerful pulse at the heart of an infinitely small watchmaking mechanism.

PANTHÈRES ET COLIBRI

With this piece, Cartier injects its femininity into the creations on which it confers its refined silhouette. It features the black diamond-studded dial with an intricate wild grass motif and fully gem-set bezel. The profile of the panther flaunts a rhodium-finish 18-carat white gold set with 270 brilliant-cut diamonds, eye consisting of a pear-shaped emerald, spots in black lacquer spots.

The Panthères et Colibri watch employs a mechanism through its power reserve to create an entertaining sight of a mother and baby panther chasing after a hummingbird. Apparently, in this new on demand power reserve calibre 9915 MC movement, the time remaining until the watch needs rewinding is indicated by the breadth of the bird’s flight.

In a nutshell, it is cased in a 42.75mm rhodium-finish 18-carat white gold set with 314 brilliant-cut diamonds with beaded crown set with a diamond, fitted in black alligator skin with double adjustable folding clasp in rhodium-finish 18-carat white gold set with 43 brilliant-cut diamonds.

The aesthetic is exquisite and the decoration refined especially with the black diamond-studded background of the dial features an intricate wild grass motif. The fully gem-set bezel adds a contrasting halo of light. The profile of the feline stands out by its volume, with its diamond-set coat and black lacquer spots – and this is where all Cartier’s talent is revealed, in its ability to transpose a watch complication to the register of an imaginary, feminine universe so as all the better to convey this tender scene between a mother and her cub.

Water resistant up to 30 metres, this piece is also available with a gem-set bracelet.

Panthère Mystérieuse

The panther, which first entered the Cartier menagerie of animal motifs in 1914, is combined in the Panthère Mystérieuse watch with the mysterious complication, which has formed part of the watchmaking heritage of the Maison for over a century.

This new fascinating piece flaunts an authentic work of three-dimensional jewellery sculpture: The feline, with its coat of diamonds and black lacquer spots, curled around the dial. With its head, paws and emerald eyes, this striking piece features a transparent dial on which the hands float in suspension, activated by the invisible calibre 9981 MC.

Housed in a 40mm rhodium-finish 18-carat white gold and black lacquer, set with 8 brilliant-cut diamonds case, this piece boasts the panther motif in rhodium-finish 18-carat white gold set with 533 brilliant-cut diamonds, eyes set with two pear-shaped emeralds which complement the stunning dial features the sword-shaped in rhodium-finish steel. Its crown is set with 37 brilliant-cut diamonds, and its strap comes in black alligator skin paired with double adjustable clasp in rhodium-finish 18-carat white gold set with 43 brilliant-cut diamonds. Water resistant up to 30 metres, this piece is also available with a gem-set bracelet.

BALLON BLEU DE CARTIER

For this creation, our master enamellers have drawn inspiration from the principles of granulation, which consist of creating minuscule beads of gold and then mounting them on a plaque. The result is utterly stupefying: A panther’s head that is strikingly lifelike in appearance and expression, in which Cartier reproduces the volume required, the depth of its gaze, the prickle of its whiskers and the smoothness of its coat.

Featured in a 42mm 18-carat yellow gold case, set with 124 brilliant-cut diamonds, and a 22-carat yellow gold dial with the enamel granulation of panther motif, this remarkable watch boasts the Mechanical movement with automatic winding, calibre 049. Available in limited edition of 30 individually numbered pieces, this watch is fitted with dark blue alligator skin and double adjustable folding, 18-carat yellow gold, set with 43 brilliant-cut diamonds.

This exceptional piece bears witness to the creative vitality of the Maison des Métiers d’Art and its ability to encourage collaboration between engravers, polishers, enamellers, jewellers, gem-setters and watchmakers to create a single spectacular piece.