The Ronde Louis Cartier is named for the watchmaker who popularized the mechanical wristwatch for men, and thus has many of the defining characteristics of the timepieces of the era. It was in this period that Cartier was able to innovate in the design of wristwatches thanks to its partnership with Edmond Jaeger and Antoine LeCoultre, which gave them access to some of the slimmest movements of the time. Since then, Cartier has developed its own in-house movements and the Ronde Louis Cartier timepiece for this year is also an extremely slim timepiece, with a hand-wound mechanical caliber 9754 MC.
The throwback to the early years of Cartier as a watchmaker is shown most evidently in its hands, which are the apple-shaped hour and minute hands on the dial. Early Cartier timepieces also featured this design, eventually giving way to the sword or diamond-shaped hands seen today on their timepieces.
The Ronde Louis Cartier collection has a very consistent look, with large indices around the dial in Roman numerals and a smaller circle of Arabic numeral indices indicating afternoon time. A chemin de fer minute track is marked out in black.
What is new to the Ronde Louis Cartier this year is the use of guilloche on the dial. The rosette pattern is divided into two areas, leaving a blank white dial for the minute track and Arabic numerals. The larger Roman numbers are indicated on the rosette pattern, with a tiny Cartier logo at 7 o’clock. A small seconds counter with a railroad seconds track is positioned in between 10 and 11 o’clock with a needle pointer.
Other little details such as the inverting of numbers from ‘21’ to ‘15,’ deliberately done to facilitate the reading of these times, demonstrate the thoughtful design process that goes into each watch at Cartier.
Variations of the Ronde Louis Cartier include the pink gold model as well as diamond-set models on the bezel and crown, as well as on the center of the dial and finally, a model with full pave diamonds.
*Thanks to Revolution
