cartier watches for menmens cartier wedding rings,In recent years Cartier, the king of haute joaillerie, has begun storming the bastions of haute horlogerie. In this full-length feature WatchTimes Joe Thompson explores the intriguing origins and bold future initiatives of Manucture Cartier.
In April 2008, Cartier startled the watch world with the introduction of its first ever Geneva Seal watch, the Ballon Bleu Flying Tourbillon. At the time, some watch industry observers (including this reporter) considered it a stunt.Cartier is a genuine watch power; it is either the second- or third-best-selling Swiss watch brand in the world after Rolex. (Omega and Cartier both claim to be number two.) However, mously French Cartier had no tradition of mechanical movements in-house and no watch manucturing roots whatsoever in the canton of Geneva, which is a key requirement to earn the allegedly prestigious Poinçon de Genve. So how did Cartier get the Geneva Seal?
In 2007, Cartiers parent company, Richemont SA, acquired the production cilities of Manucture Roger Dubuis in Geneva, which specialized in Geneva Seal movements. Cartier promptly took over an atelier in the Dubuis cility and installed 10 master watchmakers there. The flying-tourbillon caliber they produced there, the 9452 MC, is based on a Roger Dubuis design. Voil: Paris-based Cartier, with watch production cilities in La Chaux-de-Fonds and Fribourg, Switzerland, was transformed into a Geneva Seal brand. Technically it was legit. But the question lingered: Was the expertise really Cartiers or was it Dubuis behind a Ballon Bleu cade? Two years later, its clear that it really was Cartier. What some saw as a stunt was actually a shot, an opening salvo announcing Cartiers emergence as a bona fide mechanical movement producer with serious ambitions in high horology.
A watchmaker at Manucture Cartier examines a mechanical movement during the final stage of assembly.
In the past two years, Cartier has rushed with Usain Bolt-like speed into the high-mechanical mens market. It has unveiled 17 new mens mechanical watches and nine new manucture movements (including another Geneva Seal movement), at least six of them conceived, developed, prototyped, and produced entirely in Manucture Cartier, the firms giant watch cility in La Chaux-de-Fonds. Among them is a new base automatic caliber, 1904 MC (for Manucture Cartier), the first Cartier has produced in-house. It was launched this year in a new Cartier mens watch collection, Calibre de Cartier. Caliber 1904 MC will be the base movement for future Cartier automatic models, including those with complications.
Perhaps the most surprising new development at Cartier and the best evidence of its burgeoning high-mech might was the presentation last November of the Cartier ID One, a concept watch developed by Cartier engineers that may be the worlds first watch that never needs adjusting. The watch is loaded with innovative mechanisms and materials, inside and out, such as hairsprings made of Zerodur, a balance wheel made of carbon crystal, an oscillating weight coated with amorphous diamond-like carbon and a niobium-titanium case. It is currently ticking away in the research-and-development department in the manucture under the engineers watchful eyes and promises to deliver new advances in high horology for future Cartier watches. (For details, see Cartiers Concept: A No Adjustment Watch in the January-February 2010 issue of WatchTime.) All of these developments have left watch collectors and aficionados surprised, impressed, and confused. They identify Cartier more as a maker of jewelry, scarves and handbags for their wives than of high-mech marvels for themselves. What, they wonder, is going on?
Whats going on, according to top Cartier executives from Paris and La Chaux-de-Fonds, is a new chapter in the firms long, often illustrious watch history. Cartier execs acknowledge that Cartier today is more of a ladies line: it is the worlds top producer of jewelry watches. In the United States, for example, womens models account for two-thirds of Cartier watch sales. Cartier execs also acknowledge that they are somewhat late to the luxury-mechanical-watch party and, at this point, dont bring a lot of high-mech credibility with them. Nevertheless, they point out that their conversion to mechanical movement manucturing is in keeping with Cartiers identity as a maison (French for house) whose craftsmen and women historically produce its own luxury products, and with its heritage as a pioneer in mens wristwatches with icons like the Santos and Tank.
Nor is Cartiers mechanical conversion as sudden as it might seem. Cartier International CEO Bernard Fornas says its new mens mechanical watches have been in development since 2005. They reflect a strategy undertaken on Fornass watch to shift the firm from being a mechanical-watch assembler relying on a network of suppliers for movements and parts to being a vertically integrated manucture. To that end, Cartier has quietly spent a fortune over the past six years developing in-house the mechanical watch know-how it needed. The mission was not simply to have Cartier take its place as a watch manucture next to Vacheron Constantin, Jaeger-LeCoultre, A. Lange &ts a mens-only line of 42-mm-diameter watches. The new automatic caliber is a robust movement with two barrels that provide plenty of power for the Calibre de Cartier watches and for other complications that Cartier plans to add. It is the base automatic movement that Cartier will build on in the future. The movement has a fine regulation system adjusted via a C-shaped index and a stop-seconds system for precision time-setting. Caliber 1904 MC is another important step in Cartiers vertical integration. Today, says Tullii, Cartier relies on just four outside movement suppliers: Richemonts own movement manucturer Valfleurier, ETA, Jaeger-LeCoultre, and Audemars Piguet Renaud &arge model from last 1 year. The watch is good in condition, the only problem with my watch is it is not good time keeping. should i need to repair my watch or Sell My Cartier Watch?
Reply
Sir:I have a Cartier Ballon Large Watch 247143nx4010.I check it out,Inside watch machine has a small plastic seal.Is it normal to have it .doesthe original watch has it.Please Advice
Reply
Hi Henry,
Thanks for your comment. Im not sure about the answer to your question, but Cartiers customer service should be able to help you.
Their contact information is here: Hope that helps.
Reply
Wryst reveals its new watch collection inspired by extreme sports and motorsports: Wryst Elements. Each version is limited to 75 pieces.
