Having just returned from a couple of days in Geneva, where Watches & Wonders 2022 is still taking place, from today I begin to show you some of the watches that I have had the opportunity to see and try. I’ve seen so many! Some of the true masterpieces of watchmaking, other wonders of jewelry. The first one that I present to you is fully included among the must-haves of fine watchmaking. I am referring to Cartier’s Masse Mystérieuse. Incredible watch, featuring a brand new movement created by the Fake Cartier Haute Horlogerie Manufacture. The mystery lies in its “heart”: the magic of a mobile caliber, concentrated in a semicircle transformed into a skeletonized oscillating weight (two of the watchmaking brands of the Maison, the mysterious movement and the skeleton, enclosed in a single piece!). Since the first decade of the twentieth century, with the appearance of the first mystérieuses pendulettes, this movement has been the subject of a continuous process of miniaturization to adapt to watch cases; for this new creation, it was also twisted to transform the swing box into a real ornament. The new caliber 9801 MC allows to stem the effects of gravity on the chronometry of the watch. The result of nearly eight years of development at the Cartier Manufacture, where it was conceived, fine-tuned and assembled, the movement is the subject of a registered patent. After two different prototypes, the final version of the. In this new creation the hands seem to float in the space of the case, without apparent connection to any mechanical element. Not only that: the entire movement seems suspended, as in the absence of gravity. All components that receive energy from movement, transmission and adjustment are integrated into the rotor, which is also skeletonized to give full visibility to this animated show. In the center, a differential system taken from the automotive industry has been integrated into the movement to prevent the time display from being determined by the mass. An authentic technical feat that comes to life with every movement of the wrist, allowing you to view the march of the hours marked by the hands suspended as if in a vacuum. It is certainly the most technically complex watch ever developed by the watchmakers of the Manufacture: the mysterious rotor applies an innovative principle that ensures the same vertical position of the balance wheel. The rotor, in fact, turns in both directions and at an irregular speed.
The mystérieuses pendulettes are called “mysterious” because the hands do not seem to be connected to any mechanical movement but rather to float in the transparent body of the clock. Cartier’s first mystérieuse pendulums were presented in 1912. The operating principle is brilliant: the hands are not directly connected to the movement, but rest on two glass discs with toothed metal edges. Activated by the movement, generally housed in the base of the clocks, the two toothed discs move the hands, which circle the dial at two different speeds (hours and minutes). In order for the illusion to be perfect, the toothed perimeter of the discs is hidden by the hour scale.replica watches uk
