Ballon Bleu de Cartier floral-marquetery parrot watch

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Ballon Bleu de Cartier floral-marquetery parrot watch - Cartier
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The floral marquetry adorns and enlivens the dial of the Ballon Bleu de Cartier 42 mm watch.

For several years, Carier has been shaking up tradition with creativity and innovation while reviving rare and forgotten crafts. It has thus built up a formidable collection of exceptional watches.

This year Cartier has taken up a new craft in watchmaking: floral marquetry, which adorns and enlivens the dial of the Ballon Bleu de Cartier 42 mm watch.

A watch at the crossroads of two kinds of craftsmanship: the one, never before seen in watchmaking, immortalises flowers and their vulnerable beauty; the other, that of the jeweller, enhances the dial’s precious nature.

When the two combine, a kind of alchemy occurs, resulting in an explosion of colour: there is the blue and the orangey-yellow of the plumage, the deep black of the beak, the emerald green of the eye and the sparkling white diamonds in the background of the dial and on the crown.

Montre Ballon Bleu de Cartier perroquet en marqueterie florale

 

Making the ephemeral eternal takes time. A multitude of minute operations follow one after the other: the flower petals are gathered and coloured, each petal is then stuck onto a thin piece of wood and cut into the desired shape using a marquetry saw. Thus transformed, they become feathers and plumage, a precious, noble material that is vibrant, sensual and fragile, with a volume and texture that contrast with the shine of the onyx beak and emerald eye. The grey and black feathers surrounding the eye are created one by one with miniature painting.

Montre Ballon Bleu de Cartier perroquet en marqueterie florale

 

The 42mm case is made in rhodium-plated 18-carat white gold set with 124 round diaonds totalling 1.80 carats. It houses the self-winding mechanical movement Cartier Calibre 049. The bracelet in white semi-matt alligator skin is equipped with a double adjustable folding buckle in rhodium-plated 18-carat white gold set set with 43 diamonds.

The watch is produced in a limited edition of 20.

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