Golden Hour

Free-flowing curves, exacting lines, carefully orchestrated volumes: Cartier’s signature is recognizable at a glance. A small gold oval, smooth as a pebble, is all it takes to identify the Baignoire watch. A square case with softly rounded corners can only be the Santos. As for the Tortue watch, while its unusual shape may not be Cartier’s sole prerogative, its interpretation distinguishes it from all others. Cartier continues to employ this creative approach in contemporary collections which echo the house’s heritage in a deft fusion of watchmaking and jewelry expertise. Among the timepieces and jewels unveiled this spring, the Baignoire Clou de Paris watch and the Clash jewelry collection manifest this process, both historically and aesthetically. /public-objects/ca427382-1af6-4224-8be0-a858f4ad10f2-353b2999-39c1-4dc8-a77e-ac66c1ad5dd5-SHOT_05_199_B_Vsite.webp Image sélectionnée Time shaped by the jeweler’s eye At Cartier, this formal exploration is anchored in time-honored gestures. Behind each creation is a patient hand employing techniques inherited from jewelry’s grandest tradition. A watch is never envisaged as simply a functional object; it is seen as a volume to be sculpted, a surface to be revealed through the interplay of shadow and light. The Baignoire is testament to this. Originating in 1958 from a form that Louis Cartier had already explored in the 1910s, it officially became the Baignoire in 1973. Decades have passed, yet this oval silhouette has retained its effortless poise. Transgenerational, the Baignoire owes its longevity not to chance but to masterful proportions, perfectly balanced curves, a beautifully finessed profile. More overtly joaillière in its bangle-bracelet version released in 2023, this aspect of the Baignoire’s temperament is accentuated by the Clou de Paris motif—already part of the house’s creative repertoire in the early 1920s and revisited on Baignoire Allongée models from 2019—that Cartier introduces this year. With scrupulous precision, each pyramid shape is formed out of gold, ensuring its line remains sharp and clean while maintaining the oval contours of the case and the curve of the bracelet. Only an experienced artisan can adjust and refine the metal during a decisive phase of hand-polishing that reveals the motif’s brilliance and luster. /public-objects/6dd98609-5eab-467e-bbfa-811abe15f172-cdce59a3-7bb1-44ff-98ef-87c2725b4cbc-Copie%20de%20Sans%20titre.webp Image sélectionnée A confluence of arts Further evidence of this meticulosity, the Clash collection introduces yellow gold iterations of pieces that were previously offered in rose gold only. Whereas the Baignoire explores the purity of an iconic shape, Clash highlights the complexity of jewelry whose flexible, articulated construction leaves each part free to move, for jewels that feel comfortable and supple when worn. Spikes, studs and beads mesh into a signature aesthetic whose fluidity is the result of flawless execution that calls on multiple techniques, from traditional lost-wax casting to high-precision machining and an assembly process that involves as many as 600 individually polished components. This is jewelry that comes alive and moves with the body. When colored stones—pink chalcedony, onyx, red- or green-tinted agate—are added to this precious mesh, the level of complexity becomes greater still. Each hardstone bead is selected according to precise criteria of color and size, pierced then, with millimetric precision, pinned into place by a Clou de Paris motif. A final, invisible adjustment and the full force of the design is revealed: an intersecting of the precious and the mechanical that Cartier has cultivated for over a century. /public-objects/1d0041d6-d266-4c30-8f7b-ab1e1c163bbb-913a8802-3a34-4210-b523-42f9e1c3b8f4-Design%20sans%20titre.webp Image sélectionnée These new creations illustrate how Cartier has always been attuned to the times. Certain inspirations, such as ideas borrowed from industry in the 1920s and 1930s, are still observed today in resolutely modern forms. A century ago, picots, square studs and beads already featured on the house’s watches, jewelry and accessories. These are the decades when Jeanne Toussaint, nicknamed La Panthère, was casting her expert eye over the house’s creations. The new Myst watch is part of that lineage. “The design of the Myst watch follows in the footsteps of the jewelry watches created under Jeanne Toussaint’s direction in the early 1930s–pieces that were both sculptural and flamboyant,” notes Pierre Rainero, Cartier’s director of image, style and heritage. Sculptural indeed, for the most striking aspect of the watch and jewelry collections unveiled this spring is the emphasis on volume and movement. A Cartier signature! /public-objects/b7bd8148-0d3c-4a68-905d-88eb5832a373-c318aacc-d680-487e-b3e7-b0844ee5976e-SHOT_03_090_A_Vsite.webp Image sélectionnée