By freeing up the space on the dial, by limiting the functions to just the hours, minutes and seconds, by concentrating the calibre beneath minimalist bridges, Cartier’s watchmakers have enabled the flying tourbillon to be majestically displayed, creating, with the Rotonde de Cartier Reversed Tourbillon watch calibre 9458 MC, a radiant and graphic timepiece. The challenge surrounding the form as well as the content of the watch led Cartier to condense the movement into the narrow space provided by the bridges.
The luminous dial of the Rotonde de Cartier Reversed Tourbillon watch upholds the tradition of guilloché work, of which the radiating motif is one of the Maison’s great signatures. Fully mastered, the refined space of the dial stripped of numerals boasts a range of signature Cartier features: a Rotonde de Cartier case that is today the emblematic shape of the Maison’s Fine Watchmaking creations, a cabochon sapphire on the winding crown, the Cartier C indicating the seconds numeral.
To reinforce the dial’s graphic identity and enhance the perspective of the guilloché, the dial is arranged off centre. Thus, nestled in the hollow of the seconds aperture, the flying tourbillon, the centre of this entire composition, beats like a heart.
Cartier chooses to reveal to the eye what often remains hidden. This construction is both aesthetic and very technical and led the watchmakers to pay particular attention to the finishing of its 167 components. As for all Fine Watchmaking movements at Cartier, the component parts making up this mechanical movement with manual winding, equipped with a 52-hour power reserve, are all hand-finished.
Each of the movement’s parts received a specific finish: chamfering on the bridges, drawn flanks, polished screw heads and Côte de Genève decoration, the parallel ridges of which echo the guilloché on the dial. This array of highly regulated finishes that meet the criteria for obtaining the “Poinçon de Genève” are a testament to careful work carried out with respect for tradition.
