To a greater or lesser extent, all the great "Maisons" fly the banner of guardians of the old crafts related to watchmaking, but above all with the decorative arts that embellish them: from goldsmithing to diamond setting, passing through the different enamel techniques and even marquetry. And Cartier has a reserved position there in its own right, it is not in vain that Cartier is called "the king of jewelers and the watchmaker of kings" (or vice versa, which I don't remember). It was also Cartier who recovered the technique of granulation (a metallurgical technique consisting of letting molten gold pass through a slit of small holes. These drops of gold fall into a container with water where they form small golden spheres) in 2013.
Created in the new Maison des Métiers d’Art in La Chaux-de-Fonds, the clockRonde Louis Cartier Filigreereinvents the ancestral technique offiligree, ancient art attributed to the Sumerians three thousand years before Christ. Developed in India, Tibet, Greece, Egypt and Iran, it was much later, in Portugal, where it acquired its letters of nobility. As airy as lace,filigreeIt is a technique ofgoldsmithwhich uses gold or silver threads fixed by fusion in order to obtain an openwork grid with a specific motif where equal aesthetic value is granted to occupied and empty spaces.
For Cartier, the challenge was not only to adapt this technique to the restricted dimensions of a watch case, but also to transcend the limits, opting for the preciousness of jewelry materials such as gold, platinum and diamond. To this end, the artisans of the Maison des Métiers d'Art have worked the hammered gold and platinum micro threads, which require a set of specific tools, specially created in the same place. Twisted, laminated, coiled, cut into small rings, these gold threads have been assembled according to the “à jour” filigree technique that allows the elements to be fixed on the sides instead of on the bottom and that requires more than a month of work by a specialized craftsman.
The result is a pair of panthers whose black lacquer-stained fur is literally a fabric of fine gold and platinum filigree elements set with diamonds and whose eyes are custom-cut emeralds. All this on a background of a starry sky and surrounded by a diamond-paved band…
RONDE LOUIS CARTIER XL FILIGREE WATCH
- Ronde Louis Cartier XL filigree panther motif watch
- Mechanical hand-wound movement, caliber 430 MC
- Limited and numbered edition of 20 pieces
- 42 mm 18-karat yellow gold case, set with brilliant-cut diamonds
- Pearly crown decorated with a brilliant cut diamond
- A total of 1.19 carats
- 18K yellow gold knob-shaped hands
- 18-carat yellow gold dial set with brilliant-cut diamonds, filigree of 22-carat yellow gold threads and 950 platinum, panther motif, emerald eyes
- Dark blue alligator leather strap
- 18K yellow gold folding buckle set with 43 brilliant-cut diamonds for a total of 0.42 carats
- Case thickness: 8.00 mm
- Watertight up to 3 bars (~30 meters)
- Price in Spain: €191,000, taxes included
www.cartier.com
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