News: 3 Mysterious Cartier Watches – The Rotonde De Cartier Precious Icons Set

Watches and Wonders is an incredibly competitive event. So how do you make a lasting impression? A magic trick of course. Introducing the Cartier Rotonde De Cartier Precious Icons Set—a three-watch collection with a few tricks up its sleeve.

Rotonde De Cartier Astromystérieux

Kicking off this trio of Rotonde De Cartier watches is the Astromystérieux. The Astromystérieux is a 43.5mm platinum watch that boasts a blue—well teal—alligator strap, an aquamarine cabochon-encrusted beaded crown and a pretty irregular movement.

The dial is made up of an outer ring with roman numerals and a minimal chemin-de-fer minute track. The inner part of the dial? Well, that’s all left to the floating Calibre 9462 MC.

The movement not only floats on this watch, it orbits—hence the Astro-mystérieux name—completing one full rotation per hour. Okay, okay, it doesn’t really float. The Calibre 9462 MC is instead suspended by a tourbillon carriage that’s fixed to a transparent rotating sapphire disc. The cage holds everything from the barrel, to the balance—a pretty neat trick if you ask me.

The manual-winding Calibre 9462 is not only a sight to behold—orbiting the case in a somewhat celestial manner—but is also practical and accurate thanks to a 55-hour power reserve and a 21,600 vph beat rate.

Rotonde De Cartier Astrotourbillon

Next up is the Astrotourbillon. At 47mm, the Astrotourbillon is the biggest watch in the set. Although still platinum—like the Astromystérieux—the Astrotourbillon has a dark blue strap, an aventurine cabochon-encrusted beaded crown, and a tourbillon like no other.

What makes the tourbillon of the Astrotourbillon different? I hear you ask. Well, positioning. The tourbillon sits on top of the movement—rather than being integrated as a traditional one would. This allows the tourbillon to be positioned underneath the hands of the watch—a choice Cartier made to achieve its design vision: clean lines, radical design, and the importance of aesthetics.

Unlike the Astromystérieux, the Astrotourbillon has bridges that can be seen. There are three. The oversized roman numerals at 12 and 6 make two, and the Cartier signed bridge at 3 makes three. They all help to fix the Calibre 9461 MC to the grey chemin-de-fer minute tracked rehaut.

The manual-wind Calibre 9461 MC features a 2-day power reserve, 23 jewels and runs at 21,600 vph. Bearing in mind this is a minimal movement with a tourbillon, I think the 2-day power reserve can be excused—and anyway, you’re going to want to take this watch off and admire it, so why not give it a wind at the same time?

Rotonde De Cartier Skeleton Mysterious Double Tourbillon

What’s better than one tourbillon? Two tourbillons. As the name would suggest, our final watch—the Skeleton Mysterious Double Tourbillon—has exactly that. With, yep, you guessed it, a platinum case—45mm if you were wondering—the Skeleton Mysterious Double Tourbillon is accompanied by a green alligator strap, a jade cabochon-encrusted beaded crown, and well, two tourbillons.

The dial is made up mostly of large Roman numerals which double as bridges for the watch’s movement. Seen peeking through the numerals is the manual-winding Calibre 9565 MC. The movement boasts a 52-hour power reserve, 26 jewels, a 21,600 vph beat rate and a double tourbillon—which can be seen orbiting around a fluted inner dial.

Being a double tourbillon, the tourbillon makes a complete rotation once every 60 seconds on one axis and another rotation on a different axis every 5 minutes. The double tourbillon is suspended—similar to the Calibre 9462 MC founds in the first watch—by a rotating sapphire disk to achieve its float-like effect.

Storing the watches

So where do you put three magnificent watches when you aren’t wearing them? In a box, of course. The Rotonde De Cartier Precious Icons Set comes with one of the nicest presentation boxes I’ve seen in a long time—and I’ve seen a lot of boxes, believe me. The box is not only highly decorated but also offers a glimpse at the beating heart of each timepiece below via a window at the middle of each intersecting wood marquetry disk.

Limited to just five pieces, this three-watch collection is a true testament to Cartier’s watchmaking skills. Although the trio will inevitably cost a lot of money, what you get for your money is rather impressive: three watches, a beautiful display box, and—oh, I forgot to mention—some rather lovely rhodium-finish 18k white gold cufflinks—well played Cartier, well played.

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