The term “mystery” as applied to the Cartier means that you can’t immediately see how the hands are attached.
Cartier was one of the most impressive brands to visit at 2013 SIHH. Start at 100 years ago, they were making a range of beautiful mystery desk and mantle clocks. That heritage has now been miniaturized into a pair of high-end wrist watches in their upper-end collection. One is the Rotonde de Cartier Mystery watch and the other is the Rotonde de Cartier Double Tourbillon Mystery Watch. That latter piece will likely get a dedicated timepiece so stay tuned for more information on that.
Cartier’s Rotonde Mystery watch is rather lovely and comes in 18k white or rose gold. The Rotonde-style case in this instance is 42mm wide with a tone of distinct Cartier styling. You get that typical deeply cut and engraved dial with blackened sections and Roman numerals for much of the dial. Then there is the “hole” where you see the hands. Just in case you aren’t familiar with these systems, the movement moves two transparent sapphire crystals that have the hands mounted on them. It creates the illusion that the hands are floating in space. The effect is interesting, but as many people commented when I first put an image of this on Instagram and Facebook while at the show, it doesn’t super sexy to see your arm hair through the watch.
Inside replica Cartier Rotonde Mystery watch is an in-house made caliber 9981 MC manually wound movement, which is made up of 158 parts and operates at 21,800 bph. It has a power reserve of 48 hours, and is just 4.61mm thick. The whole replica Cartier watch is just 11.6mm thick. And on the rear of the watch you can see the movement in its entirety. The challenge for a movement such as this is moving the relatively heavy discs which can effect accuracy greatly.
The replica Cartier Rotonde Mystery is 42mm wide, 18k white or rose gold options, as well as steel models available. There is another thing should be mentioned that replica Cartier also offers a full pave with diamonds version of its piece. No doubt the replica Cartier piece is more classic in style, but you get something a bit more unique with Konstantin Chaykin.
