Fake Cartier has been making watches with mysterious time displays since 1913. Since 2013, such wondrous watches have also been available for the wrist. The latest and possibly last product of this kind is the Cartier Masse Mystérieuse, which will be presented in 2022 during Watches & Wonders.
Mysterious with a history
There is no doubt about it: the Cartier Masse Mystérieuse wristwatch, which is exceptionally fascinating in its appearance and which Cartier assigns to the Fine Watchmaking product segment, is a remaining design by Carole Forestier. The former chief watchmaker of the French luxury brand now works a few kilometers away at TAG Heuer.
It all started with Maurice Coüet. In 1913, the 27-year-old presented a so-called Pendule Mystérieuse. His creation was based on designs by Jean-Eugène Robert-Houdin and Mathieu Planchon from the mid-19th century. The hands of Coüet’s creations seemed to float in space, seemingly without a motor. Of course, even this craftsman could not override the laws of mechanics. His trick consisted of externally toothed glass panes controlled by a spiral axis system. These had hands made of platinum and diamonds. The drive was provided by a classic hand-wound movement in the case base.
The Model A was launched in 1913. The Cartier archives list the American banker Pierpont Morgan Jr. as its first customer. Variants followed over time, including ones with a central rotating axis. In 1925, the French Gazette du Bon Ton devoted itself to the “wonders of watchmaking that reveal the mystery of time unreal and as if woven from moonbeams.” Despite exorbitant prices, around 90 examples were made between 1913 and 1930. One of them suffered an inglorious fate. As the Duchess of Westminster describes in her memoirs, one of the mysterious pendulum clocks ended up on the bedroom wall during a night-time marital argument.
Cartier Masse Mystérieuse
The mysterious Rotonde de Cartier debuted in 2013 with the hand-wound caliber 9981MC. It is impossible to say whether the 2022 Masse Mystérieuse will be the last oeuvre of this kind, given the retirement of Carole Forestier. In any case, this wristwatch impresses with two technical and craftsmanship aspects that were a watchmaking concern for the master of her craft. Firstly, there is the skeletonized construction and execution of the mechanical movements. This is also known to be found in classic bestsellers such as the Santos. On the other hand, the ticking newcomer takes up the mystery of invisibly controlled time display cultivated by Cartier in wrist-friendly dimensions.
The development of the spectacular automatic caliber 9801 MC took a total of eight years. Like the automatic SR 497 launched in 1953 by today’s sister company Jaeger-LeCoultre, the platinum wristwatch from Cartier, which is 43.5 millimeters wide and 12.64 millimeters thick on the wrist, does not have the option of manually winding the mainspring. In this case, the reason for not doing so is the complex mechanics, which represent much more than the sum of their parts.
Once the movement, which has a diameter of 39.6 millimeters and a height of 7.3 millimeters, has stopped, it is not advisable to generate energy by rotating the whole thing quickly. Slow action is the order of the day. Or, better still, use the watch winder integrated into the case for a few hours. The fully tensioned spring storage provides power for a busy ticking at four hertz for 42 hours.
Five different designs were developed on the way to the patented movement. The quintessence resulted in a first prototype. Two further versions contributed to the perfection of the Masse Mystérieuse. Even in the age of computer-controlled production technology, good things still take time. After 30 examples, production of the basic version reference WHRO0078 without decorative accessories ends. Including 19% VAT, it is available for just under 300,000 euros.
The reference with the diamond-set case is called HPI01470. With a leather strap, each of the ten Cartier Masse Mystérieuse watches presented at Watches & Wonders costs 565,000 euros plus country-specific VAT. Each of the five references HPI01471 costs 1.2 million euros plus VAT. It is worn on the wrist with a fully set link bracelet.