Preliminary sketch of the ‘Baignoire Débordante Watch’ by Cartier.

Cartier’s expertise at delivering icon-ic watches has no match, so it is al-ways with great anticipation that we await what time keeping wonders Cartier will unveil at each SIHH show (SALON INTERNATIONAL DE LA HAUTE HORLOGERIE) in Geneva and previews assure us the 2018 / 28th edition will not disappoint.

With a dash of irreverence for the rules, Cartier is launching The Cartier Libre collection, a radical play with the mai-son’s signature watch shapes. They are stretched, shrunk and distorted into modern objects of fantasy, straight from a surrealist world, yet engineered in the top facilities of the Cartier Manufacture in La-Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland.

Hitherto unseen shapes echo the Baignoire and Crash watches. “Their pro-portions are disrupted, volumes accen-tuated and lines lengthened. Seeking to disrupt the Cartier repertoire, these are adventures in extravagance where precious materials and contrasting co-lours are breathtakingly feminine and minimalist in design”, the Cartier team explains.

CAD rendition of the ‘Baignoire Débordante Watch’ by Cartier.

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Only a house at the top of their game could venture into defying cat-egorisation with such gusto. Of course the Cartier codes and the su-preme elegance are still present; “whether visible or perceptible only to the eye of the connoisseur, they are the ultimate guarantee of au-thenticity”, the team adds. The Cartier Libre collection includes five limited edition individually numbered jewellery watches, and all are presented below.

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CAD rendition of the ‘Baignoire Débordante Watch’ by Cartier.

Esprit de Salvador Dali es-tu là? jumps to mind when looking at the ‘Crash Watch’. That said, Dali’s version was a case of melting whereas Cartier’s vision is all about crushing. Different laws of physics apply but the end result has the same audacity. How an accidental change of state can become a revelation is down to the art-istry of the design team and workshops. In oth-er words, the watch is probably more desirable, and definitely more interesting than if it had not been distorted. Unearthing the beauty in cha-os is what Cartier has achieved with this watch. The Roman numerals have been stretched “to the point of hallucination”, the team says: the ultimate detail, if we needed any, that confirms how hypnotising the ‘Crash Watch’ really is.

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‘Crash Watch’ whose case is surrounded with 18K yellow gold gadroons, alligator strap, manual movement 8970 MC; limited edition of 50 pieces. POA. Paul Lepreux

© Cartier.

‘Crash Watch’ whose case is surrounded with 18K yellow gold gadroons, alligator strap, manual movement 8970 MC; limited edition of 50 pieces. POA. Paul Lepreux

© Cartier.

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A ring of open petals, which has been pierced with openwork, surround the oval brushed dark dial. It is also convex so as to amplify the effect of overflow outwards from the centre. The sense of movement is compounded by the insertion of black spinels among the white diamond droplets, which instils a touch of optical illusion. The ‘Baignoire Débordante Watch’ is as much a corolla as a delicate wave, an ode to the capture of time as if an orderly waterfall had been captured in the moment. Of course it is also a sub-limely elegant timepiece for the evening.

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‘Baignoire Débordante Watch’ in 18K white gold, case set with diamonds & black spinels, quartz movement; limited edition of 50 pieces. POA. Paul Lepreux. © Cartier.

‘Baignoire Débordante Watch’ in 18K white gold, case set with diamonds & black spinels, quartz movement; limited edition of 50 pieces. POA. Paul Lepreux. © Cartier.

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The ‘Baignoire Infinie Watch’ takes ‘fitting a circle in a square’ to an all-new level. How the sides of the outer concentric disc have been shaved to fit in the large rectangular strap is mind-boggling. Again there is the idea of capture. The black dial is minuscule and circled by a ring of brilliant-cut white diamonds. This nucleus is the mysterious source from which three crowns radiate. The shimmer of those crowns is due to marquetry of white and Tahitian mother-of-pearl alongside black spinels, which is occasionally punctuated when the few baguette-cut diamonds that hide among the inlaid surface catch the light.

‘Baignoire Infinie Watch’ in 18K white gold, case set with

diamonds & black spinels, mother-of-pearl, quartz

movement; limited edition of 20 pieces. POA. © Cartier.

(The image is a CAD rendition, as the watch will not have been

completed by the time this article comes out).

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‘Baignoire Infinie Watch’ in 18K white gold, case set with

diamonds & black spinels, mother-of-pearl, quartz

movement; limited edition of 20 pieces. POA. © Cartier.

(The image is a CAD rendition, as the watch will not have

been completed by the time this article comes out).

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Black and White, Ying and Yang, Night and Day… The ‘Baignoire Etoilée Watch’ plays on duality, however a soft one. The bejewelled strap is the hero; a crystalline cascade of glittering diamonds and black spinels seems suspend-ed. It is similar to gossamer-like embroidery, an exquisite tattoo on the wrist. Black melts into white as contrasting colours cast illusions around a minuscule dial set with a double row of stones. The upper part of the bracelet does not mirror the bottom part, so the distribution of round and square gemstones is random, and here resides the il-lusion: despite the apparent effect, there is no symmetry, the signature of a free flowing design.

‘Baignoire Étoilée Watch’ in 18K white gold, case and bracelet set with

diamonds & black spinels, quartz movement; limited edition of 15

pieces. POA. © Cartier.

(The image is a CAD rendition, as the watch will not have been completed by the time this article comes out).

www.cartier.com

‘Baignoire Étoilée Watch’ in 18K white gold, case and bracelet set with diamonds & black spinels, quartz movement; limited edition of 15 pieces. POA. © Cartier.

(The image is a CAD rendition, as the watch will not have been completed by the time this article comes out).

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‘Catch me if you can!’ seems to be the cry from the heart of the dazzling ‘Baignoire Interdite Watch’ by Cartier. The supreme elegance of black and white is here to serve a higher purpose, name-ly to “disorient the eye” by “turning the oval di-al crosswise on the wrist”, the Cartier team says. “The gaze flickers between the top, where over-size Roman numerals wrap the case in strips coat-ed in glossy black ADLC (carbon based coating), and the bottom, where the diamond-ringed di-al alternately emerges and hides”. This piece will be officially unveiled at the 2018 edition of the Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie. This year Cartier has indeed centred their high watch-es around one unifying theme: a surrealist play on the oval watch.

‘Baignoire Interdite Watch’ in 18K white gold with paved

bezel, ADLC and white diamonds, quartz movement;

limited edition of 50 pieces. POA. Paul Lepreux

© Cartier.

www.cartier.com

‘Baignoire Interdite Watch’ in 18K white gold with paved bezel, ADLC and white diamonds, quartz movement; limited edition of 50 pieces. POA. Paul Lepreux

© Cartier.

www.cartier.com