Cartier pushes boundaries with 45 new complications
Cartier has proved its point as a serious watchmaker, with 45 new complications and a series of award-winning timepieces emerging from its La Chaux-de-Fonds workshop over the past decade
This year's SIHH was all about bringing together its revelations in mechanical watchmaking with haute joaillerie creativity, displayed in new timepieces that combine familiar Cartier references with artisanal flair.
Cartier first dabbled with the concept of floating hands in 1912 with its mystery clocks. It provided the blueprint for innovations that led to its mystery dial, characterised by invisible sapphire discs that give the appearance of the hands or movement suspended in gravity that belie such a feat.
"We like the idea of transparency and mystery," says Cartier image, style and heritage director Pierre Rainero. "There is nothing as pure as being transparent, so it is very Cartier. But there is also a constraint in the continuity of design because the dial is transparent; then the movement is around it. Creatively it is a challenge, but we like challenges."
This year, those challenges are met with a series of new high-jewellery interpretations of the dial that suggest a growing desire for a more refined aesthetic and originality to mechanical timepieces.
"The idea of combining both specifically this year sees the mystery technique at its best combined with high-jewellery refinement at its best. That composes extraordinary objects," Rainero says.
The white gold Dragon Mysterieux watch features the 9981 movement with an hour and minute display surrounded by diamond scales, coral and piercing emerald eyes that mark out the dragon's enigmatic profile, while a cushion-shaped 23.77ct fire opal mounted on the dragon's head is Cartier's interpretation of its strength and energy.
The 9981 MC movement also features in the Panthere Mysterieuse pendant watch, which is one of three new interpretations of Cartier's most iconic symbol. The mystery dial is sculpted from a block of agate that cleverly enhances its inner crystallisation, while a diamond-studded panther rests around it in an arc of diamonds and obsidian.
The Rotonde de Cartier Astromysterieux represents one of Cartier's most ambitious pieces with a mystery dial. The watch is powered by the patent-pending 9462 MC movement, which arranges its components around four sapphire discs that work in tandem. The escapement, balance wheel, gear train and barrel are attached to the hands so that they move in sync supported by the rotating discs.