Results matching “cartier”

As in previous years, Cartier has put together a Lepoard-themed ad campaign for the winter, which they call Panthere due to the weird differences between French and English. As before there's a over-the-top-cute video, now with two cubs.

Sadly the website for the Winter's Tale promotion has nothing new at all

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The watch industry, like any large industry, has it's own internal awards. These include the the Aguille d'Or(golden hand), given at the annual Grand Prix de l'Horlogerie de Genève, a "for us, by us" type of award, like the Oscars.  Also given are "press" awards by the various magazines, more like the Golden Globes, including the Watch of the Year, given by Montres Passion, the TimeZone Watch of the Year and even the Couture Design Awards, given by a Jewelry industry publication, has a watch category.

So there are plenty of awards for watches, for the best, the newest, the most complex or the most blinged-out watch, but there are no awards for the worst, the most derivative or the least inspired attempt to get a bite of the apple. There is no watch industry analogue to the Golden Raspberry or the Bulwar-Lytton Award for bad fiction. Since we're nearing the end of the 2012 watch model year, by October we'll start hearing pre-release "buzz" for the 2013 Baselworld and SIHH releases, I present my picks for the 2012 Watch Industry Razzies (I was going to come up with some sort of bad acronym to spell out WRIST, but that will have to wait). Note that these are my opinions only and only reflect the high-end of the watch industry.

Words, Names and Press Releases
First, in the realm of letters, we have 3 awards, two for Press-Release rediculousness and one for a product name.

Worst PR Text, Florid Prose Division

Roger Dubuis for the PR for their new Venturer - "For ever walking on a tightrope, always off the beaten path, the boundaries of normality have no meaning in his life. The world of the Venturer is marked by danger and challenge. Adrenalin is his fuel, action is his engine, intelligence and alertness are his protection. This is the world that permeates the new Pulsion Collection from the Genevan watchmaker ROGER DUBUIS. These are timepieces made in his own image: naturally powerful, and effortlessly controlled." (source)

Worst PR Text, Absurdly Overdone Metaphor Division

Stefan Kudoke for his Kudoke White Flower - "Flowers are in need of warmth and light. Therefore it has been planted behind two translucent sapphire glasses like in a greenhouse. The body heat of the wearer warms the sensitive plants.....Due to years of research Stefan Kudoke succeeded in cultivating a flower species that is able to cope without any water. That is why the case is protected against water. The flowers vigor is fertilized by a Swiss automatic winding movement delicately refined in Kudoke manner. " (source)

Worst Acronymic Hash

Christopher Claret - "X-TREM" (source)

X for Experimental
T for Time
R for Research
E for Engineering
M for Mechanism

Watches and Movements
Now onto the technical awards, from cases to watches and onto things kinda like watches, but not really.

Bling!

Piaget for their Emperador Tourbillon Coussin and a case-back pavee set with diamonds (source)

Smallest change to make a new model

Girard Perragaux for their Laureto 3-bridges Tourbillon. They changed replaced clear sapphire bridges with pale blue Spinel ones.

Press Pic (source)	Side by side (source). Since it's nearly impossibly to tell, the one on the right is the old one, with clear bridges. The one on the left has the new blue bridges.

Most I love the 90s

IWC and their weird fixation on Top Gun (source)

As an aside, why is there a "Spitfire Perpetual Calendar" model in the Top Gun Collection?

Middle-finger to the collectors

Beat Haldimann H9. It has neither hour nor minute hand, nor any indication to record the current or the elapsed time. It doesn't even show the beat of the, what one assumes is a, fantastically made and finished movement within. (source)

Special Raspberry of the year, 2012

This year, the Raspberry of the Year goes to the entire industry as an award for pandering, specifically the the Year of the Dragon special editions. Several of these are actually quite fantastic, for example Piaget's sculptural dragon or Jaquet Droz's playful one, but the overall effect of nearly every watch brand (excluding Patek Philippe and Rolex, bien sur) having one, some as minimally "special" as just to have a different engraving, is overwhelmingly mercenary.
(all brand names link to the image source)

Piaget	Grieb & Benzinger	AP	Cartier
Angular Momentum	Parmigiani	Vulcain	IWC 7-day dragon rotor
Kudoke	Jaquet Droz	Chopard	Paul Picot
Tissot

(All the images are from the manufacturer except the AP Dragon, from PuristsPro user Allen and several images by PuristsPro user Z3, the Piaget caseback, the Parmigiani Dragon and the GP Tourbillon comparison)

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Peter Lippmann is a Paris-based photographer who was born in the US.  He's done quite a wide range of still-lives, from food to fashion to jewelry, and has had a long standing relationship with the Cartier Art magazine.  Magazine No. 14 features a photoshoot "Seduction", pairing the Cartier pieces with Alligators. It starts with a pair of gold and precious stone Alligators, which together form a necklace, that were commissioned by the early 20th century Mexican actress Maria Felix (previously referenced).  



The La Dona watch in 18kt gold is featured in the next two.  This model was inspired by Mrs. Felix, hence the connection with the initial pieces in the shoot.





(source)

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More pre-SIHH watches from Cartier with silly long names(see the Rotonde Minute Repeater Flying Tourbillon), this time the "Grand Complication Skeleton Pocket Watch", which is exactly what it sounds like.  Despite the press release referring to the movement as a "manual-wind Cartier in-house caliber 9436 MC with 37 jewels, 21,600 vph and a power reserve of 8 days", it is the same Renaud et Papi caliber they use for some grand-complication each year, this time as a pocketwatch. The real artistry from Cartier is in the white gold case, which has the skeletonized roman numerals attaching the movement to the edge, even hiding the correctors for the QP. The numerals are in the clear Cartier serif font, and really well finished (see live pics from SJX over at thePurists). The sides of the case are a nicely executed chevron pattern and the crown/pusher for the chrono is the current Cartier standard, with beads and a blue sapphire cabochon on top.

Dial side of the watch	Pocketwatch with the included 18kt white-gold chain

At 59mm in diameter and a full 1/4 lb, it's not going to be an easy piece to carry, so Cartier includes a desk stand of rock crystal on an onyx base.  The design is somewhat of an homage to their Mystery Clocks(see previous post) from the beginning of the 20th century.

(source)

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(Yes ALL of that is the model name)

The new model-year for watches technically starts with SIHH in late January, but like the Republican primaries, the brands have been pushing their announcements earlier each year to try and generate "buzz". One of Cartier's contributions this year is a grand complication for their Rotonde collection, a minute-repeater with flying Tourbillon. Housed in a 45mm case in either 18kt rose gold or Titanium (probably sounds better and the weight will be more manageable at that size) this is a Cartier in-house developed movement, not one based on the Roger Dubuis calibers acquired with the brand...they've been VERY explicit about that and it bears none of the signature hallmarks of RD design so I believe them. From the front of the case you can see the flying tourbillon and the repeater hammers, regulator and gongs - which encircle the dial.

With the dial removed, you can see not that much more, just the keyless works. The entire repeater mechanism is on the back-side of the case.

From recordings of the repeater, it is very clear and a nice sound, but the notes are much closer together then in the classical repeater, perhaps related to the unusual regulator on the front.
(source)



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Sometimes a clever design doesn't need to have anything new or complex, just the proper use of a technique. In this case, Cartier seems to have achieved that by reversing the usual layout of an automatic movement and putting the oscillating weight on the front, decorated with a panther (of course). That allows the cat to run around the dial at will, depending on the motion of the wearer. It's a pitty they went a bit overboard with diamonds on the case, but that does seem to be their MO these days.

Specs are: 42mm diameter 18k white gold case set with 6.8ct of diamonds. The dial is deep-purple mother-of-pearl and the rotor-cat is set with diamonds and black lacquer spots. Movement is the in-house MC 9603, a 16 ligne automatic with 31 jewels and a 48 hour power reserve.

First two pictures are the dial and case of the watch. The right-hand picture shows the thickness of the case needed for the dial-side rotor.

A series of pictures showing the cat in motion

(photos Laziz Hamani © Cartier 2011, source )

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Starting on December 13th, Christies will be auctioning off Elizabeth Taylor's collection of jewelry with proceeds to benefit her AIDS charity ETAF. The preview show has started and is making its way around the world before coming to rest for the sale in New York which means that photos of the pieces have started trickling out. I'll start with just the previewed necklaces.

First a pair of shots of an emerald and diamond necklace by Bulgari originally given to Taylor by Richard Burton

REUTERS/Fred Prouser	AP Photo/Richard Drew

More Necklaces

Sapphire and diamond necklace by Mouaward with matching earrings AP Photo/Misha Japaridze	A gold and ivory necklace which was a gift from the estate of Edith Head. The Ivory disks are 19th and 18th century opera passes. AP Photo/Richard Drew
One of a suite of Kunzite, amethyst and diamond "Triphanes" jewelry by Van Cleef & Arpels. It is estimated at $70,000 - $100,000. AP Photo/Richard Drew	"The Taj Mahal Diamond," (c. 1627), on a gold and ruby chain by Cartier, was a gift from Richard Burton for her 40th birthday in 1972. The central diamond is engraved with the words "Love is Everlasting" in Parsee. It is estimated at $300,000 - $500,000. AP Photo/Richard Drew
A ruby, diamond and pearl necklace by Cartier with the La Peregrina 60-carat natural pearl pendant The necklace is expected to bring $3 million at auction. REUTERS/Fred Prouser	The so-called "Grandmother's Necklace", with matching earrings, by Van Cleef and Arpels in front of a Warhol "Liz Taylor" screen-print (not owned by Ms Taylor). The necklace and earring set were a present from Richard Burton to commemorate the birth of Taylor's first grandchild. AP Photo/Misha Japaridze

(source note that that page is a nightmare of ads and javascript pain, and the second image in the slideshow is Hank Williams Jr.)
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Cartier(mentioned before) threw a massive bash in the Villa Aurelia, a 17th century Roman palazzo built by Cardinal Girolamo Farnese, to release their new members in their Sortilège (enchantment) collection.

Some of the familiar Cartier faces were there, including actresses Monica Bellucci and Fan Bing Bing, along with the Italian actress Isabella Ferrari and Polish actress/model Kasia Smutniak. The piece Ms Ferrari is wearing is one of the older pieces in the collection, it was on display in their boutique in 2008.

Monica Bellucci	Fan Bing Bing
Isabella Ferrari	Kasia Smutniak

(source)

There are an ocean of more pictures of the reception

Some more of the new pieces

Sapphire and diamond earrings set in platinum	Platinum ring set with diamonds and coral beads. (The PR didn't mention the material of the black accents, possibly black onyx)
Aquamarine bracelet, with a large pear shaped stone and beads in shades of blue. The main element is platinum with moonstone and diamonds accents and a single Tahatian pearl	Pearl bracelet with a platinum accent, set with a large polished Rubelite, diamonds and black onyx
Platinum ring with a faceted ruby set in the middle of a piece of rock crystal. It's an intriguing effect.	White gold ring with pink and purple sapphires and diamonds. The polished, not faceted, sapphires allow the sparkle of the underlying diamonds to be seen, an unusual effect

(source)

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At SIHH 2011 Cartier(previously mentioned) released a version of their Rotonde de Cartier with a Plique-à-jour enamel dial of a polar bear. Plique-à-jour enamel filled in the spaces between thin wires, like cloisonne, but without a backing plate - the enamel is translucent like a miniature stained-glass window. Like many other styles of enamel, it was quite popular during the Art Deco period, and has since fallen from fashion.

(Photo from Kee Hua Chee but his assertion of copyright is absolute crap)

For those interested, they've now put out a brief interview with Ines Hamaguchi on the making of that enamel dial

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Christophe Claret has been in operation for over 20 years, but only as a complication maker for other brands.  Until 2009, you couldn't buy a Claret watch, but a Cartier, or a UN or a Harry Winston, etc with a Claret movement within.  In 2009 he released the DualTow, a massive beast of a watch, proving the adage "just because you can doesn't mean you should.  This time around he's released a more focused design, the 21 Blackjack watch.  It has an entire casino, including a pair of dice in a side compartment, each 1.5mm cubes, a roulette wheel based on the automatic-winding rotor and a mechanical blackjack game on front. 

The movement is a 40 jewel automatic consisting of 501 parts including 7 pairs of ceramic ball-bearing assemblies, and a striking chime to indicate when you've won.  Production is limited to 21 pieces running from $200,000 to $400,000 depending on case material, which can be Titanium, Platinum or red or white gold.

Dial of the watch, showing the blackjack game

Reverse of the watch, showing the roulette wheel

Closeup of the side, showing the miniature dice
(source)

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