It’s that time of year again: the days are shorter and the air chillier, holiday decorations are on their way to store windows, and luxury watch brands are offering sneak peeks of selected new timepieces launching this coming January at the Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie (SIHH) in Geneva. First up is Cartier ? by far the largest brand showing at the world’s most elegant watch salon ? with two new high-complication watches equipped with so-called “mysterious” movements: the Rotonde de Cartier Skeleton Mysterious Double Tourbillon and Rotonde de Cartier Mysterious Day & Night Watch.
Much as Breguet has embraced the tourbillon, and Patek Philippe the minute repeater, as signature horological specialties, Cartier has adopted the technology of the groundbreaking “mystery clock” ? born in 1912 of a collaboration between brand founder Louis Cartier and watchmaker Maurice Coüet ? to inspire several of the pieces in its Fine Watchmaking collection, including, most recently and notably, last year’s Rotonde de Cartier Astromysterieux. The “mystery” refers to the elements on the dial, such as hands and tourbillon carriages, which appear to be floating in midair rather than anchored to a movement but are actually attached to stacked sapphire disks driven by the gear train of the cleverly hidden movement.
The Rotonde de Cartier Skeleton Mysterious Double Tourbillon Watch (above), powered by Cartier’s in-house ...