Watches and Wonders Edit: Cartier updates its legendary Santos and Tortue, roars with an animal-themed addition, and essays an optical illusion with the Reflection de Cartier

Apr 22 , 2024

The Reflection de Cartier was among the French jeweller’s showpieces at Watches and Wonders. Photo: Handout

From refreshing a century-old classic and a whimsical journey into abstract animal patterns, to an optical puzzler lavishly covered in diamonds and two contrasting updates on the ultimate pilot’s watch, Cartier had something for everyone at this year’s Watches and Wonders.

The Tortue, first unveiled in 1912, has long been a favourite for the graceful curves of its tonneau case and lugs, and the highly legible dial with Roman indications. It has been reimagined as the Tortue Monopusher Chronograph, the latest release in the coveted Cartier Privé collection, which reinvents Cartier classics in newly refreshed limited editions.

The Tortue Monopusher Chronograph is slimmer than its predecessors

The monopoussoir chronograph complication was first seen on a Tortue in 1928, and was refreshed in 1998 with the blued steel, apple-shaped hands and hollow seconds hand that also distinguish the most recent iteration. Other notable features of the new watch include the chronograph subdials at 3 o’clock and 9 o’clock, which are operated by a push button integrated into the crown, and a rail track outside the hour markers for extra legibility.

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Tortue Monopusher Chronograph features Cartier’s slimmest movement

The Tortue Monopusher Chronograph is also thinner and lighter than its predecessors and houses Cartier’s slimmest ever chronograph movement, Manufacture 1928 MC, which is just 4.3mm thick. The hours and minutes version comes in a numbered limited edition of 200, while there’s also a platinum set version, of which just 50 are available.

Dramatic representations of animals have been a Cartier hallmark ever since 1914, the year that the Parisian luxury watchmaker and jeweller first unveiled a timepiece featuring a depiction of the animal most associated with the maison: the panther. Over the years, the animal motifs on Cartier watches have taken a wildly diverse range of forms, from the directly figurative to the artfully abstract. The house’s latest animal jewellery watch, the Tigrée Jewellery Watch, leans heavily towards the latter, with a striped pattern rendered in hand-applied lacquer that is inspired by the forms of both the zebra and crocodile. Between the stripes, the piece absolutely drips with ice, across the entirely diamond paved case, bezel and dial.

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Cartier’s newest animal jewellery watch, the Tigrée Jewellery Watch

The Reflection de Cartier cuff watch demonstrates the watchmaker at its most innovative, pushing horological forms into entirely new territory. A journey into illusion and optical trickery, this cuff-shaped watch – which neatly forms a Cartier “C” – snakes around the wrist to terminate in a dial that faces across at the other end of the piece, where it meets its own reflection.

The Reflection de Cartier cuff watch takes horological form in a different direction

The bracelet is a delicate combination of lightness and solidity, with openworked and polished reflective gold sections. Its white gold comes partly paved with a combination snow set and inverted set diamonds, while the dial features bevelled glass for maximum refractive impact and sparkle.

This year’s Watches and Wonders also saw the unveiling of two new pieces in one of Cartier’s most iconic lines of all, the Santos collection of pilots’ watches. The Santos was launched in 1904, designed specifically for legendary aviator Alberto Santos-Dumont, who wore his while becoming the first person to fly an engine-powered plane in public. The Santos de Cartier Dual Time showcases a grey counter featuring an adjustable second time zone in a subdial at 6 o’clock – it is accompanied by rhodium finished, sword shaped hands and a seven-sided faceted crown.

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The Santos de Cartier Dual Time places its subdial at the 6 o’clock position

The Santos Dumont Rewind, meanwhile, is a more faithful recreation of the collection’s classic codes – with one major exception.

The Cartier Santos Dumont Rewind is a retrograde movement piece

As the name suggests, the watch tells the time in reverse, with a movement that turns the hands anticlockwise, making it appear to be going backwards. With a platinum case and a carnelian dial, it’s available in a limited edition of 200.

Watches and Wonders Edit

The Tortue Monopoussoir Chronograph is thinner and lighter than its predecessors and features Cartier’s slimmest-ever chronograph movement, the Manufacture 1928 MC
The Reflection de Cartier is a cuff-shaped watch that forms a Cartier ‘C’, with a bracelet is that has openworked and polished reflective gold sections