Time Travels
This season, Cartier presents two collections that will appeal to men on the move
If you’re struggling to find a Christmas stocking filler for the men in your life, Cartier has a couple of possibilities that are sure to be gratefully received. The distinguished French jewellery brand and illustrious house of haute horlogerie may have been a late-starter when it came to creating innovative and complex watches for men in-house, but it has swiftly become an undisputed industry front-runner, introducing 17 new men’s mechanical timepieces and nine new manufacture movements in the past two years alone. An impressive achievement for a company that only began making watch movements in-house in 2008.
Included in those launches are a number of timepieces in “accessible” price brackets that feature such movements. These include the Ronde Croisière de Cartier collection. Croisière is French for cruise, so this is the brand’s cruise collection, also known as a resort collection. Perfect for the man considering getting away from it all on a winter vacation. Smart/casual, stylish/sporty, this timepiece is surely intended to be worn while playing quoits on an ocean liner, tanning the body beautiful by the Riviera or sipping sundowners on deck while being lulled by gently lapping waves.
The Ronde de Croisière Cartier timepiece, as the name might suggest, has a round face; which is also flat and wide, making it practical, secure and comfortable enough to be worn casually, but sufficiently smart to make the transition to relaxed evening entertainment. You could say this retro-inspired casual sports watch is somewhat understated compared to the sharper rectangular shapes for which the brand is so well known. The black calfskin strap that looks a lot like canvas fabric, adds to the informal appearance and feel and, at 42mm, it is the ideal size for men.
It is water resistant (to 100 metres) rather than waterproof, so a better option for yachties than Olympic swimmers or deep-sea divers.
The much talked about in-house movement is the self-winding 1847MC, named after the date Cartier was founded; was conceived, developed and assembled in the company’s Swiss workshops.
This timepiece is available in three variations: steel with a silver dial and black hands; steel with a grey dial and steel hands; steel with a grey dial and pink-gold tone hands. Plus all the features one has come to expect from Cartier: Roman numerals, railtrack, cabochon sword-shaped hands and guilloche dial. The thin case (9.77mm thick) with shorter lugs gives this watch a retro look—circa 1950s-60s. It’s an all-purpose, casual sports watch that would be a welcome stocking filler.
The Rotonde de Cartier 42mm Second Time Zone Day / Night is the latest addition to the collection and includes the in-house movement whose name references the year the maison’s founder, Louis Cartier, created the first men’s watch for the brand: the 1904-FU MC smaller-complication caliber is very useful for those who travel a lot. The movement comprises 230 parts and includes traditional finishing such as cotes de Geneve on the plates, the bridges and the winding rotor. FU refers to ‘fuseaux’, a French reference to the second time zone display which will help ensure you don’t call your important overseas contacts in the middle of the night, while the inclusion of massive date numbers (in the window at 6 o’clock position) means you don’t have to squint to see what day it is. The second time zone is marked via a 1 to 12 retrograde scale in the upper left dial, which can be advanced in one-hour increments by pressing the crown. There is a day/night aperture near four o’clock and a running small seconds counter in the 6 o’clock position.
This very attractive watch is available in a white gold (which is limited to 300 pieces), pink gold or steel case, this Rotonde de Cartier features a silvered or a rather lovely shiny blue enamel dial, a sapphire back and a crown set with a sapphire cabochon or synthetic cabochon-shaped spinel for the steel model. Additional decorative elements include two different guilloche motifs and Breguet-style hands with cut-off Roman numerals.
It’s automatic winding, while the power reserve is around 48 hours and is strap is alligator with a double adjustable deployant buckle matching the case metal.
The prices for these collections—described as “accessible”—are so good it’s almost as though you’ve travelled backwards in time.