After a groundbreaking 2013 edition, with a Double Tourbillon Mystérieux, Cartier is now the under the spotlights. The manufacture 2014 collection is highly anticipated. Hopes won’t be deceived ! Cartier just unveiled four novelties. If the new Tank Squelette is the most traditional and expected piece, the three others deserve a detailed explanation.

Cartier SIHH 2014 – The first diver’s watch from Cartier

First, the very first diver’s watch from Cartier ! The Calibre collection is a 2010 creation from Cartier. In 2014, this Manufacture watch opens a new chapter with a diving version: the Calibre de Cartier Diver. It is fully compliant with the technical requirements of ISO 6425. This norm, which controls the “Diver’s Watch” label, lays down eight criteria of reliability and imposes a series of extremely rigorous tests.

The bezel is a key component of a diver’s watch. To prevent any accidental rotation or alteration of the dive-time indication, the bezel turns in one direction only. It has been designed with 120 notches (40 teeth and 3 points) to enable adjustment to a half-minute. For greater visibility, the markers signalling each 5 minute period are clearly indicated.

Moreover, the watch can be clearly read deep below the surface due to the superluminova applied to its dive-time indicators, hour and minute hands, pre-selection device and small seconds counter. Which can be useful, as the watch has been tested for water resistance at 300m !

Cartier also has paid attention to maintain a balance of dimensions. The Diver is an authentic diver’s watch, without sacrificing everyday comfort on the wrist, in a balanced case measuring just 11 mm in thickness. It is a combination of a diving watch and Cartier watchmaking, with a contrast of satin and polished finishes, and a turning bezel coated with ADLC, with the oversized, luminescent XII numeral. The piece will be proposed in the all-steel or pink gold versions on a black rubber strap.

More resources about the Calibre de Cartier Driver on Hodinkee (Live Pics) and WatchTime.

Cartier SIHH 2014 – Technical creativity

This year, two timepieces illustrate the notion of technical creativity and excellence according to Cartier: the Rotonde de Cartier Astrocalendaire watch and the Rotonde de Cartier Earth and Moon watch. Both bear the mark of an innovative and unique interpretation of their respective functions.

The Rotonde de Cartier Astrocalendaire represents a new vision of the perpetual calendar thanks to the creativity of its design and its amphitheatre-style display.

As for the Rotonde de Cartier Earth and Moon watch, it diverts the tourbillon from its strictly horological role, in which it serves as a guarantee of precision and prestige, making it the backdrop to the moon-phase display, which has neither hand nor aperture.

Cartier SIHH 2014 – A new QP vision

Designed like an amphitheatre, with the intention of clarifying the perpetual calendar’s indications, the Rotonde de Cartier Astrocalendaire’s display is an incredible watchmaking feat. It overcomes numerous readability issues that are specific to the traditional approach to this complication, which requires the juxtaposition of twelve months, seven days, the date and the type of year in a diameter of just a few centimetres.

Arranged three-dimensionally in concentric levels, the display of the perpetual calendar’s functions is spread over the different levels: the day is indicated on the first. It is followed by the month on the second, which is itself surmounted by the date. Thin windows move along these tiers. The perpetual calendar’s final function is indicated by a hand located on the back of watch and shows what type of year it is: a leap year or a normal year.

The gear train system of the watch replaces the traditional lever and spring mechanisms with a gear train mechanism that substantially limits the risk of breakage when the watch is over-wound at inadvisable times. The traditional design of a perpetual calendar prohibits any manual correction several hours before and after midnight at the risk of breaking the mechanism. The adjustments made using four minuscule push-pieces on the side of the case are impractical and never clearly identified.

This operating problem no longer exists with the Rotonde de Cartier Astrocalendaire watch’s movement thanks to a setting system that uses the crown. In addition to the traditional setting of the hour and minute, the crown also controls the date and month indicators. This ease of use is further increased by the possibility of correcting the functions both forwards and backwards. Wearers of the Rotonde de Cartier Astrocalendaire watch need no longer fear going beyond the current date as this error is easily corrected.

More resources about the Rotonde de Cartier Astrocalendaire available on Hodinkee (Live Pics).

Cartier SIHH 2014 – The Rotonde de Cartier Earth & Moon

This watch is the fruit of a technical and creative ambition that brings together two complications in one display. Removed from its strictly horological role, in which it serves as a guarantee of precision and prestige, a tourbillon has been incorporated into a moon phase complication, with each one dependent on the other.

By pressing the push-button situated at four o’clock on the side of the case, a panels descends and partially obscures the Tourbillon carriage. The crescent thus formed reproduces exactly the moon’s shape in the sky. Last but not least, the second time zone is indicated by a 24-hour disc that was redeveloped by for the calibre 9440 MC.

More resources about The Rotonde de Cartier Earth & Moon on Perpetuelle, and WatchInsider.