When Cartier introduced the Drive de Cartier at SIHH 2016, I did not expect to find a new addition to the Ballon Bleu family in one of the brand’s signature red and gold boxes. Especially not a Ballon Bleu with moon phase. In Cartier’s rich history, the moon phase has been largely and conspicuously absent. Why?
It remains an incredible skill to be able to fool a person’s senses. Cartier does an absurdly good job of creating horological magic tricks with its “mystery” movements like the one we find here in the Rotonde de Cartier Astromystérieux presented at the 2016 edition of SIHH. Almost the entire movement is seemingly not connected to the surrounding watch, floating delicately in the transparent dial opening. How does it work?
Watches & Wonders, inaugurated three years ago as an Asian version of the SIHH, has evolved into an important horological exhibition for local press and watch aficionados thanks to its strategic location in Hong Kong. Here we bring you an overview of 12 interesting timepieces launched at this prestigious fair.
The panther is Cartier’s most famous animal. But why is this so, and how has this ‘beastly’ line managed to remain in the watch and jewelry collection for more than 100 years? A look at the relationship between Louis Cartier and “the Coco Chanel of jewelry” Jeanne Toussaint sheds some (spotted) light on the first watch design, the Art Deco painting that inspired the collection, and the popularity that propelled it.
For Quill & Pad’s themed “Ladies’ Week” in my role as resident collector, my thoughts turned immediately to that other collector in my life: my charming wife. MrsG is perhaps most enthusiastic about her collection of Southwestern Native American arts and jewelry, but let’s get started with a look at her interesting watches, which include excellent examples from Jaeger-LeCoultre, Blancpain, Alain Silberstein, Audemars Piguet, and more.
Sparkle. It’s why the way diamonds are presented is critical to the intended effect of razzle-dazzle we all love so much. For this reason, people have been experimenting with setting techniques for a long time, and a few examples have become part of jewelry canon. Cartier’s new “vibrating” setting is inspired by an old setting that looks to change the options available. It debuts with the Ballon Bleu de Cartier Serti Vibrant watch, an intense diamond experience bound to fascinate the eyes of men and women alike.
For the past five years, I’ve had the delightful experience of traveling to Switzerland with several friends to experience SIHH week, before finishing up with a Friday night dinner at which we review our impressions of the week by answering what watch we thought was best of show at SIHH; what was the worst watch; what current-production watch that we saw at any event during the week would we buy if money were no object; and what current-production watch did we see that we would buy with our own money?
In the past, a skeletonizer would have taken many hours to saw and file away at an existing movement in order to remove all that is superfluous. Today, skeletonized movements are for the most part conceived to be such right from the start. At the 2015 edition of SIHH, we found five such skeletonized watches, all of which were designed as such from the get-go.
A tourbillon is actually a type of escapement and not a real complication. Tourbillons are not only quite complicated in themselves – some more complicated than others – they come in a very wide variety of shapes, sizes and functionality. Here are five tourbillons presented at the SIHH 2015 by Cartier, Greubel Forsey, Jaeger-LeCoultre, Parmigiani, and Roger Dubuis.
You may be familiar with the old Christmas diddy “The Twelve Days Of Christmas.” Let me sing you the final verse of this song, including what my true love gave to me on the twelfth and final day, in horological terms…