Among the many many watches coming online at Perpetuelle.com’s Official SIHH 2010 Forum, here’s another that caught my eye this morning – the Cartier Caliber collection.  We saw only a teaser of this one leading up to the SIHH event, and now seeing it the first time I would say that Cartier seems to have done a nice job with this one and this is an entirely new collection from the jewellery brand who seems quite serious on establishing itself as a very credible watch brand beyond just fashion.

This watch is nicely shaped, not too big, not too small, IMO – 42mm.  The watch has Cartier’s Caliber MC 1904 which they say is “the first self-winding mechanical movement crafted entirely by Cartier.”  I’m not a big fan of the “exposed date” feature where you see the day before/after, but otherwise it looks solid to me.

There are 3 variations, but I strongly prefer the 2 pictured below over the third (you can see all these variations as well as their technical specifications and Cartier’s eloquent press release if you click over to Cartier’s SIHH forum thread, here).

Now this is what I like to see…after a couple leaks of some exciting watches coming from Cartier next year (like this and this ), Cartier decides to send out this little teaser. And I say “Well done, Cartier team, well done!  But you know you can only hide from First In Watches for so long…..”

So, any guesses on what this watch might be?  Based on the case shape, I think we might be seeing the start of a whole new Collection from Cartier…

Sure, sure – you’ve seen the pics (if not you can check them out HERE), but how about the video? First In Watches – we got ya covered, yuh!

Seeing the watch rotor in action reminds me of something out of a Batman movie!

Update:  It just hit me!  Funny, but I was just lauding Cartier’s Rotonde de Cartier  couple months ago, wondering what SIHH 2010 might have in store….and now this!

Limited edition 100 pieces.  45mm diameter stainless steel case.  Cartier Caliber 9455 MC manual winding movement with the Geneva Seal.

Love it.

Cartier Rotonde de Cartier Flying Tourbillon Skeleton

Source:  Cartier.

If you were still in doubt of Cartier’s watchmaking ambitions after last year’s SIHH, then you will doubt no more after seeing this – the Cartier ID One Concept Watch.  Cartier revealed this amazing new “concept watch” to tell the world that is quite serious about being more than just another “fashion” brand in the world of high watchmaking, and at first glance it looks like its effort will be a convincing one.  Boy does she look sweet!  Check it out:

The watch is set in a 46mm “Ballon Bleu”-style case – except in a very high tech and undoubtedly awesome material called “Niobium-Titanium” (more on Nb-Ti below). The basic concept behind the Cartier ID One is to create a watch which does not require regulation or adjustment either during assembly or indeed at any time during the life of the watch.  Presently, there are several basic points at which every mechanical watch has to be adjusted during the assembly process, most notably the hairspring, the balance, and the pallet fork.  Cartier has come up with innovations that it believes address each of these challenges.  I’ll touch briefly upon each, but first, how about a couple more pics of this amazing watch:

Now, back to the numerous innovations in this watch.  First is what Cartier calls a “Zerodur hairspring”.  Zerodur is the name of a proprietary ceramic/glass material that is completely unaffected by magnetic fields and is also highly dimensionally and elastically stable across a wide range of temperatures.  Next, Cartier has introduced a balance wheel, escape wheel and lever in “Carbon Crystal”.  Carbon Crystal is an extremely hard, diamond-like material which effectively enables the escapement to be oil free.  Third, the ID One Concept Watch has a shock resistant escapement cage.  This allows the escapement cage to shift both laterally and vertically to absorb force, thus protecting the entire escapement from shock.  Finally, the watch has a “Niobium-Titanium” case.  Niobium-titanium is a highly wear resistant (and hypoallergenic) alloy that has its own unique shock absorption properties that give it an advantage over a material such as steel.  Not to mention it probably looks pretty darn cool!

The rotor of the Cartier ID One Concept Watch

I should make clear that the ID One is a concept watch and as such is not intended nor are there any current plans to offer it for sale commercially.  Like concept automobiles, this concept watch is all about Cartier asserting itself as a real player in the world of haute horlogerie.  You can almost hear Cartier now – “We’ve got good looking watches and the technological capabilities and skills to back it up.  Recognize!”  Yup, can’t argue with them on that.

Ultimately, the test for Cartier will be to do something with this concept.  It will be very interesting to see if, when and where some of these innovations make it into commercially available watches.  Stay tuned!

With its iconic watch collections such as the Tank and the Santos, Cartier has long been a brand whose watches tend to appeal to those more interested in high fashion and social status than to the true fans of fine mechanical watches and high watchmaking. However, at the 2009 SIHH Cartier introduced several exciting new models as well as its own in-house movements – all in an attempt to garner greater respect for itself in the world of “haute horlogerie“.

One of my favorites that Cartier introduced was the Cartier Rotonde Central Chronographe.  The distinguishing feature of this watch, as its name implies, is its innovative central chronograph function.  The clever design elements of this watch are subtle, but if you take a moment to understand them you will likely be impressed.

If you look closely at the dial you can see that the hours and minutes use blued hands which are invisible save for the tips.  This is unlike almost any “normal” watch in which the hands extend all the way to the center of the dial.  As for the chronograph function, a slim blued seconds hand begins to track the time when the push-piece is pressed, while the large counter in the form of an arc records each of its revolutions up to thirty minutes. The simple genius here being that the hands indicating the time never obscure those of the chronograph!

Perpetuelle.com partner TheTimeTV recently released a video which covers the 2009 Cartier Collection.  If you watch the video here you will get a “real world” look at the Cartier Rotonde Central Chronograph watch – among several neat watches that Cartier introduced this year!

I am excited to see what Cartier will offer at the 2010  SIHH (January 2010).

Drug Lords Like Hublot, DeWitt, Cartier – or Anything Diamond Bezeled and Ostentatious!

The Wall Street Journal reporter John Lyons ran an interesting story last week about the odd items seized by Mexican authorities from drug lords.  Of course my interest here is the watches, and I found this picture of a tray of seized watches rather fascinating – unless I am mistaken (which is entirely possible!), there looks to be 2 Hublot Big Bangs, a DeWitt, a Cartier, a Breitling, a Corum Golden Bridge, a Panerai for Ferrari, and a  Jacob & Co. in that tray, among others!  Read the entire curious article here, and watch the video here, or see a slideshow here (all part of the WSJ story).  CRAZY!

Feel free to weigh-in with a comment if you can identify any more of the watches.

Photo credit John Lyons/The Wall Street Journal.

Only Watch is a charity auction of unique watches created by many of the most important watch brands in Switzerland. This exceptional event is held every two years in Monaco during the Monaco Yacht Show and is under the patronage of HSH Prince Albert 11. All the proceeds from Only Watch go to support research into Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. The next Only Watch auction is organized in close collaboration with Patrizzi & Co and the Monaco Yacht Show, and will take place on 24 September 2009.

Participating brands include Audemars Piguet, Blancpain, BNB Concept, Bovet Fleurier, Breguet Montres, Cartier, Corum Montres, De Bethune, Delacour, Franck Muller, Frédérique Constant, Glashütte Uhrenbertrieb, Hermès, Hublot, Jaquet Droz, Louis Vuitton, Maximilian Büsser & Friends, Mont Blanc, Omega, Patek Philippe, Piaget, Richard Mille, Swatch, Tag Heuer, Tourneau Timepieces, Ulysse Nardin, Urwerk, Vacheron Constantin, Van Cleef & Arpels, Zenith International.

Below is a mosaic of their “pieces uniques”  – you can view larger images and a quote from each respective brand about their 2009 “Only Watch” contribution HERE.