Cartier Baignoire Etoilée Replica

Cartier’s New Libre Collection for Ladies Replica Watches

“Stretched, shrunk, and transformed into objects of fantasy with unbridled creative license” are the bon mots Cartier Replica Watches uses to describe its new Libre collection for ladies, debuting at SIHH 2018 in January. “Libre” means “free,” and with these new additions to its Bagnoire and Crash timepiece families, five new watches in all, the watch-and-jewelry giant takes a truly freeform approach to some of its classical case shapes.

 


Cartier Libre Collection – group

The first of these five limited-edition timepieces, all designed in Cartier’s Watch Creation Studio in Paris, is the Baignoire Débordante, with a white-gold case surrounded by a radiating ring of open “petals,” topped off with sparkling diamonds and black spinels. The movement, as in all four Baignoire models, is quartz; the watch is a numbered edition of 50 pieces.


Cartier Baignoire Debordante

The Baignoire Infinie is basically a new take on the existing Baignoire Allongée watch with the thin, curving elliptical case stretched into a circle and a minuscule black dial at its center. The white-gold case and the dial are paved with baguette-cut diamonds, white mother-of-pearl, Tahitian mother-of-pearl, and black spinels. The Infinie is limited to 20 numbered pieces.


Cartier Baignoire Infinie

Baignoire Etoilée
Shimmering diamonds and black spinels also intertwine on the Baignoire Etoilée, with a bracelet made up of suspended strands of precious stones that give the impression of black melting into white. The white-gold case, framing another miniature black dial, is set with double rows of the same stones. This watch is a limited, numbered edition of 15 pieces.


Cartier Baignoire Etoilée

Baignoire Interdite
The oval-shaped, white-gold case of the Baignoire Interdite is dominated by oversized Roman numerals, coated in shiny black ADLC, that wrap around its diamond-paved bezel like ribbons, partially obscuring the miniature dial in the center. Like the Débortante, this one is limited to 50 numbered pieces.


Cartier Baignoire Interdite

Crash Radieuse
The new Crash Radieuse is the latest and boldest take on Cartier’s popular offbeat model, the Crash, which launched in 1967 and was inspired by an actual damaged Cartier watch. This version adds gadroons to the hallmark crumpled dial, further stretches the large, distorted Roman numerals, and adds a carved “shockwave” pattern in the centre of the dial. The Crash Radieuse has an old-school yellow-gold case befitting its Swinging ’60s origins and is the only cheap replica watches for sale in the Libre collection powered by a mechanical, manual-winding movement, Cartier Caliber MC 8970. It is limited to 50 numbered pieces. Prices for the Libre watches are expected to be announced at SIHH 2018 in January.


Cartier Crash Radieuse

 

Cartier Replica, Cartier Tank Replica

Three Unusual Cartier Tank Replica Watches from the Past 100 Years

If you follow any watch blogs or magazines, odds are that you are already aware that this year is the 100th anniversary of the Cartier Tank Replica. Much has been written about the six new versions of the Tank Louis Cartier that were unveiled a few months back, and for good reason: to many people, the Cartier Tank is the Platonic ideal of a dress watch. I have a personal soft spot for the iconic model as well — I fell in love with the watch’s quadrilateral design at a young age and it drove my watch obsession that continues to this day. Rather than discuss what the Tank’s centenary might mean going forward like so many others already have, I’d like to highlight three uncommon Tanks that have largely disappeared from the public eye but are some of the most unexpected watches Cartier ever produced.
The Cartier Tank á Guichet


The 1928 Cartier Tank á Guichet.
If you paid attention to the Phillips Winning Icons auction that featured Paul Newman’s record-breaking Rolex Daytona, you may have noticed something curious about Lot 31. That 1931 Cartier Tank á Guichet ended up selling for $131,250, but the real story behind the unorthodox design goes back three years earlier to 1928 when the watch was created with a jumping hour in response to a growing interest in watches with a numerical display. Unlike modern jumping hour and minute watches — think the A. Lange & Söhne Zeitwerk — the Tank á Guichet doesn’t even have a visible dial. Rather, it featured a large expanse of metal with two tiny windows (guichets) that displayed the hour and minute. Cartier released multiple versions of the watch that often featured very different placement of the windows and crowns, sometimes the crown would be at 12 or 3 o’clock and the minute opening would be at 12 or 6 o’clock. These watches are exceedingly rare and someday I’d love to see a modern interpretation of this surprisingly masculine take on the Tank.
The Cartier Tank Asymétrique


The 1938 Cartier Tank Asymétrique.
While watches that are angled to this degree are common in both auto and aviation timepieces, it’s extremely rare to see a dress watch with the feature. The idea behind the turned dial is that the watch becomes more legible if your hand is on the wheel of a car or airplane. I’m still not sure what the value is on having the watch turned to this extent during a cocktail party or dinner, but maybe it had a specific purpose in mind when it was introduced in 1936. Regardless of its functionality, it’s just a handsome timepiece that inverts the idea of a Tank on its head. The rotation of the dial ends up placing 6 and 12 o’clock in the corners, and the overall sobriety of the Asymétrique serves as a departure from the decidedly avant-garde Tank á Guichet.
The Tank Must de Cartier


The 1977 Tank Must de Cartier in Red.
You may remember this cartier tank solo replica from the late 1970’s when the Swiss timepiece industry was still in the throes of the Quartz Crisis. The Les Must de Cartier collection came at a time when popular opinion was highly critical of luxury goods. Cartier — being one of the world’s largest luxury Maisons — took this opportunity to release its first-ever line of quartz watches. They were an instant success and became recognizable around the world for having colorful lacquered dials with no numerals. The Must de Cartier helped reinvigorate the brand and introduced them to a much larger, aspirational clientele.


The 1977 Tank Must de Cartier in Black.

Cartier Tourbillon Replica

Cartier Replica Unveils Two New “Mysterious” Complications in its Fine Watchmaking Collection

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 Cartier Tourbillon Replica Watches (above), powered by Cartier’s in-house Caliber 9465MC, is — you guessed it — a skeletonized version of the first Mysterious Double Tourbillon model, which made its debut in 2013. As in that watch, a double flying tourbillon, completing a rotation in 60 seconds, and its cage, which performs a second rotation every five minutes, appears to float in mid-air, unconnected to the rest of the movement, while sword-shaped, blued-steel hour and minute hands keep the time in an off-centered position at 12 o’clock. For this new iteration, the movement’s bridges have been skeletonized into the shape of Roman numerals — a design flourish that has become a hallmark of Cartier’s skeletonized timepieces in recent years (check out 2016’s Clé de Cartier Automatic Skeleton, for example).


The watch’s round, 45-mm case is made of platinum, with a beaded crown set with a sapphire cabochon, another mainstay element of Cartier’s Rotonde de Cartier series. This decorative crown is used to manually wind the skeletonized, 286-part movement, which features 26 jewels, a 21,600-vph frequency, and a 52-hour power reserve and is enhanced with chamfering on the bridges, drawn flanks, and polished screw heads. All of these embellishments are on display in both the front and back of the watch through sapphire crystals. The strap is navy blue alligator, with a folding buckle made of 18k white gold. The best cartier replica, whose price will be announced at SIHH 2018, will be limited to 30 numbered pieces.


The other new piece that Cartier has shown us pre-SIHH represents a first for the brand’s Fine Watchmaking collection, combining the architecture of the “mysterious” movement —developed, as mentioned above, for Cartier’s famed “Model A” Mystery Clock in 1912 — with a day-night indicator that was incorporated into another historical Cartier clock, known as the Comet clock or Planet clock. The Rotonde de Cartier Mysterious Day & Night Watch (above) features a stylized sun and moon arcing from left to right across the top half of the dial, indicating the hours on Roman numerals on the flange, while the minutes are displayed in the bottom half by means of a blued, retrograde pointer hand. moving in the opposite direction on a scale from “00” to “60.” The luxurious look of the timepiece is accentuated by the radiating guilloché and satin-brushed sunray finish on the dial, most prominently in the bottom half but also on the brown dial flange.


The 40-mm 18k rose-gold case houses the Cartier manufacture Caliber 9982MC, manually wound by the beaded, cabochon-set crown, which is on display through a clear sapphire caseback. The movement is composed of 174 parts, including 26 jewels, and has a frequency of 28,800 vph and a minimum power reserve of 48 hours. The warm gold of the case (Cartier says a white-gold version will also be released) resonates nicely with the gray alligator skin strap, culminating in a rose-gold folding clasp. Cartier has not indicated that this how to spot fake cartier watches will be a limited edition; its price, like that of the Skeleton Mysterious Double Tourbillon, is expected to be announced at SIHH 2018.