Ahead of SIHH 2017, which takes place in January, Cartier has previewed three new timepieces: the Rotonde de Cartier Skeleton Mysterious Hour, the Panthère Joueuse, and the Rotonde de Cartier Minute Repeater Mysterious Double Tourbillon.
It is the most complicated of the timepieces, the Rotonde de Cartier Minute Repeater Mysterious Double Tourbillon, that is the most exciting horologically.
The new haute horology watch is shown in a 45 mm x 11.15 mm grade 5 titanium case, that weighs under 50 grams. It is also available in also available in two platinum variants, with diamonds.
Driving the hours and minutes, the mysterious double tourbillon, and the minute repeater is Cartier’s in-house developed caliber 9407 MC, which as you can see, is fully exposed on the dial side.
In the center, you see the sword-shaped hour and minute hands. At 10 o’clock you see the mysterious double tourbillon which is a tourbillon that appears to be floating, thanks to a sapphire crystal mechanism that rotates the tourbillon regulator itself once per minute, while the tourbillon simultaneously rotates every 5 minutes within the the “mysterious” sapphire crystal module (which is why it is named “double tourbillon” even though it is truly a single tourbillon). The mainspring is located at 2 o’clock and stores 84-hours of power.
At the bottom of the dial, you see the visible hammers with a flying inertia wheel. Also worth noting, at the very bottom of the dial, right at 6 o’clock, you can see that the gongs are secured directly to the case via two screws. The low-pitched gong on the left chimes the hours B (5th Octave), and the high-pitched gong on the right for minutes D (6th Octave). Further, instead of a typical slide trigger, the minute repeater is activated by a push-piece trigger on the caseband at 5 o’clock.
The 3Hz movement measures 39.30 mm x 4.70 mm, is manually wound, has 448 total components, 45 jewels, features black rhodium finishes, and is Poinçon de Genève certified.
The push-in crown features Cartier’s signature blue sapphire cabochon on the end. Water-resistance is 30 meters. Each piece is a limited numbered edition. The titanium version will retail for $449,400 is limited to 50 pieces.
