The Art of The Dial: Exploring Cartier’s Maison des Métiers d’Art

Rotonde de Cartier 42-mm watch, lion

The dial on this watch is made of straw using the technique of straw marquetry. The straw is chosen for its high quality, sturdiness and sheen. It is split, blade by blade, and beaten flat with a burnishing bone. It is then cut up with a fret saw and assembled on an 18k-gold dial to create the lion. Blades of straw in different sizes and shades are juxtaposed as closely as possible to produce effects of volume and depth. Once the picture has been formed, the straw is left in its natural state, with no further processing or polishing. It takes 45 hours to create this dial. The watch is a limited edition of 70 pieces. Inside is a Cartier manual-wind manufacture movement, Caliber 9601 MC. Price: $82,000.

Rotonde de Cartier 45-mm watch, tiger

Last year, Cartier created a version of its Rotonde de Cartier Mysterious Double Tourbillon watch with a dial composed of stone mosaic. (Cartier call it “mysterious” because the double tourbillon appears to float, attached to nothing, in a round window in the dial.) The dial is made using two mosaic techniques. One consists of small square stones set on the base of the 18k- white-gold dial. The other uses irregularly shaped stones, known as tesserae, for the tiger itself. This dial contains nearly 500 tiny tesserae. The colors vary according to the nature of the stones. it takes 30 to 40 hours to create the base and between 25 and 30 hours to make the tiger picture.

This watch is a limited edition of 30 pieces. The case is 950 platinum. Inside is a manual-wind Cartier manufacture movement. Caliber 9454 MC. Price: $261,000