Time reinvenTed

Time
reinvented
Chairman of Cartier International
Revolutionary
hairspring
in Zerodur®,
a ceramic glass
used in the
aerospace
industry.
Simply
Bernard Fornas
They could have been called “Lubrication-free adjustmentfree Cartier” or “High performance vacuum-housed Cartier
with 32-day power reserve”, long-winded names which still
would not have listed all their innovative characteristics.
They are simply called Cartier ID One and Cartier ID Two.
Why? Because these are not simply watches. Or rather
because they are a lot more than watches.
Cartier ID One and Cartier ID Two are “concept watches”
belonging to the Cartier ID Programme. ID as in Innovation
& Development. ID as in Ideas. Unique pieces crafted to
express a vision and point the way forward, as we see it,
for a watch industry that over the last two hundred years
has often done little more than rehash old answers to the
challenge of extreme accuracy.
“Nothing is created, everything is transformed” said
Lavoisier. But at Cartier, rather than improving through
transformation, we prefer to create.
Presented today, Cartier ID Two breaks new ground by
setting out to reduce energy consumption by half for the
same volume through its use of materials, the way it is
manufactured and its vacuum case.
Foreshadowing the future, Cartier ID Two has no price set
on it, it is priceless in our eyes. Its most innovative feature
is the way it was conceived: in our Manufacture in La Chauxde-Fonds, where all our talent, expertise and enthusiasm
were brought together without let or hindrance, to allow
ideas to be born, expressed and cross-fertilized.
Tomorrow however, the technological solutions and creative
gambles of Cartier ID Two will find their way into Cartier’s
watches for 2020 or 2030. And I know that by then, our
watchmakers will be looking ahead to the watches for 2040
and 2050. For ever since the invention of the wristwatch in
1904, the Cartier Manufacture has been constantly pushing
back the boundaries of watchmaking. I’m sure that Louis
Cartier would have loved to create Cartier ID Two…
In Search
of Absolute Time…
N
obody knows for sure when Man first became aware
of time and sought to measure it with hourglasses
or sundials. But the expression “the mists of time”
has always expressed the idea of a very distant past.
If we date the appearance of the first watch, a rough,
cumbersome, metal timepiece, to the very beginning of
the sixteenth century, by 1751 the mathematician
and philosopher D’Alembert boasted of the watchmaking
achievement of his time: “It has taken us quite
a few centuries to bring watches up to the point
of perfection we see today.”
Less than fifty years later, at the dawn of the nineteenth
century, one the greatest inventors of his time put
a damper on this optimism and was already identifying
technological obstacles to the progress of watchmaking:
“Give me a perfect oil and I will make a perfect watch.”
Nevertheless, by 1850, pocket watches had reached
an excellent degree of accuracy, on condition
they were placed in a stable environment. And we saw
the appearance of “complications”, a generic term
referring to mechanisms providing functions beyond the
mere indication of the time: minute repeaters (chimes),
calendars, moon phases, chronograph, power reserve
indication, not forgetting Cartier’s creation of the concept
of the true “wristwatch” in the early years of the twentieth
century. Since that time, generations of watchmakers have
sought to further improve the accuracy of the mechanisms
they made, notably with the legendary tourbillon designed
to compensate the effects of terrestrial gravitation.
But the most substantial improvements have been
in developing watches’ resistance to external conditions
such as temperature, magnetism and shocks.
At the present time, the official COSC label granted
to watches with a level of precision that allows them
to be classed as chronometers, permits running tolerances
of -4/+6 seconds per day. But in the secrecy of their
workshops, all Switzerland’s master watchmakers are
working towards the most extreme accuracy day in day out.
Thus, in the heart of the Cartier Manufacture, the use
of new technologies and novel materials allows work
to the nearest thousandth of a millimeter !
The search for absolute time has become something
of a quest for the Holy Grail. An art of the infinite
or science of the impossible to which Cartier is bringing
innovative answers with its concept-watches Cartier ID One
and Cartier ID Two.
The first watch
Made in Nuremberg,
Germany, by Peter
Henlein in the early years
of the 16th century,
it may be the first
watch ever designed.
08
16
The marine chronometer
Invention by John Harrison
of the first marine chronometer
sufficiently reliable and
accurate to allow calculation
of longitude.
17
59
15
75
Five centuries
of watchmaking
inventions
The coiled spring
Invention by the Dutch physicist
and astronomer Christiaan
Huygens of a metal spring coiled
into a spiral capable of supplying
energy to a watch movement.
16
The minute repeater
Manufacture of the first minute
repeater pocket watch by
the English maker Daniel Quare.
In 1686, he positioned the hour
and minute hands on a single axis
at the center of the dial.
80
For thousands of years, Man measured
out his days by the only indicator available:
the Sun. He later sought not to tame the
passing of time – an impossible challenge –
but to measure it. Hourglasses and antique
sundials finally gave way to strange machines
made of iron wheels turning around each
other. The curtain had not fallen on the
Middle Ages when the first clock was born ;
the first watch followed in the sixteenth
century. Little by little, year after year,
the greatest minds and deftest hands played
architects of time and invented a strange
concept: the hour. Among the greatest
Manufactures to advance the art of time,
Cartier has always made innovation one
of its core values. Today as yesterday, Cartier
perpetuates the spirit of Louis Cartier
and continues to invent the future.
The automatic movement
17
The Swiss maker Abraham-Louis
Perrelet is credited with the creation
of the first automatic pocket watch,
originally nicknamed the “perpetual
watch”, driven by a central rotor.
70
01
The tourbillon
Considered the greatest
watchmaker in history, AbrahamLouis Breguet invented this
device that compensates the effects
of gravitation by positioning
certain essential elements
of the movement inside a revolving
carriage. Two centuries later,
this complication, the acme
of mechanical precision, is still
considered one of the hardest
to make.
18
Cartier invents
the wristwatch...
21
19
The chronograph
19
04
18
10
The folding clasp strap
Invention by the French
maker Nicolas Rieussec
of a box for measuring
times run by race horses.
His invention prefigures
chronograph watches.
Having invented the wristwatch,
Cartier continued on the road
of innovation by designing the first
folding clasp strap, an alternative
to the classic pin-and-buckle strap.
The mystery clock
Inspired by the magic tricks of Robert Houdin,
Cartier invented the first mystery clock.
Its hands do not seem to be connected
to any mechanism and appear to float in space
within a transparent rock crystal case. A mere
hundred or so mystery clocks were made
by Cartier watchmakers up to 1930, becoming
legendary collector’s items.
19
12
The wristwatch
On November 12th 1906, the Brazilian
air pilot Alberto Santos-Dumont took
to the controls of a 50 hp machine.
The airplane rose above the grass over
a distance of 220 meters. The 21-second
flight achieved a speed of 41.3 km/h
and was recognized as the first world
record in aviation. As he landed
his machine, Alberto Santos-Dumont
already knew he had made the history
books. A glance at his wrist, bearing
the wristwatch specially designed
for him two year before by his friend
Louis Cartier, was enough. The first
true wristwatch became a watchmaking
icon under the name “Santos”.
The water-resistant watch
In 1926, Hans Wilsdorf, a German
watchmaker working in Geneva,
came up with the idea of a watch
case with a screw-down crown.
The invention entered the history
books the following year when
a woman, Mercedes Gleitze, swam
the English Channel wearing a watch
of this type.
19
26
...Cartier reinvents
the watch
The lubrication-free
adjustment-free watch
“Give me a perfect oil and I will make a perfect watch”.
From the beginning of the nineteenth century, the inventor
of the tourbillon knew that with time, the oil used
2009
to lubricate a watch’s gears lost its qualities and affected
the running of the mechanism. Rather than seek to work
round this difficulty or perfect the status quo, Cartier
decided to come up with a totally novel solution: “When
you can no longer improve or replace a material, get rid
of it!”. A challenge that the Manufacture took on with its
Cartier ID One concept watch, a one-off watch made to allow
watchmakers a free rein to their creativity.
Unveiled in 2009, Cartier ID One is the first watch that needs
no regulation, with a virtually eternal working life. This
performance was achieved by manufacture to the nearest
micron (DRIE technologies), by optimization of the geometry
of all the regulating elements (escapement and balancespring), and by using cutting-edge materials (carbon crystal,
niobium titanium, Zerodur®* and ADLC coating).
The pioneering movement is perfectly paired with Cartier’s
Ballon Bleu case.
* Zerodur® is a registered trademark that does not belong to Cartier.
July
2012
The high-efficiency
vacuum-housed watch
Like any mechanism, a watch movement only uses
a small percentage of its energy productively.
Friction, air resistance and all kinds of losses take
a considerable toll on the available power. Thus inside
the watch case, 75% of the energy supplied by the spring
is wasted ! Following on from Cartier ID One,
Cartier decided to design Cartier ID Two, a second concept
watch this time aimed at improving the efficiency of
a watch movement. The objective consisted of increasing
stored energy by nearly a third and reducing energy
consumption by half for a constant volume.
Once again, the Maison’s watchmakers started with
a blank sheet and came up with some never-before
imagined solutions: new materials, novel manufacturing
techniques and totally innovative design choices.
Today this second Cartier concept-watch opens up
new technological prospects which open the way
to miniaturization, to previously inaccessible functions
and a performance level never attained till now.
Carter ID Two already beats out tomorrow’s time…
30% more energy stored
+
2 times less energy consumed
=
32 days of power reserve
Transparent
as crystal
The case in Ceramysttm
reveals the revolutionary
mechanism of the
This innovative new-generation material
is the first transparent polycrystalline ceramic
offering designers complete freedom of creation.
The case in Ceramyst TM offers a fine view
of each of the movement’s components coated
in matte black with another cutting-edge
material : ADLC.
1.
Vacuum case
To shield the oscillator from air resistance
as it beats, the interior of the single-block
case/glass in Ceramyst™ transparent ceramic
is a vacuum. Airtightness is reinforced
by using gaskets doped with nanoparticles.
4.
Differential gearing
The differential gear train with ultra-light
components works without lubrication,
minimizes friction and offers an optimized
reduction ratio.
6
in
revolutions
5.
2.
ID Escapement
Cartier ID Two reuses the solution explored
in Cartier ID One: components made using DRIE
technologies, oscillator and escapement bearing
in carbon crystal, and pivot axes in black ADLCcoated titanium.
Barrels with double
fiberglass springs
For the first time in watchmaking history,
the springs providing energy to the watch movement
have been made not in metal, but in glass
microfiber, giving a considerable increase in power.
3.
DRIE technology
DRIE technology (Deep Reactive Ion Etching)
allows micromechanical components to be made with
extreme precision (to the nearest micron) and lends
itself particularly well to carbon crystal.
6.
ADLC coating
A mix of carbon and hydrogen, the ADLC coating
(Amorphous Diamond Like Carbon) covers
the components with a fine black protective layer
unaffected by wear, self-lubricating, and highly
shock-resistant. A technique used in aerospace
and armament.
+30%
48%
energy stored, using a barrel
with double spring in fiberglass
500
times less air inside
the case as outside
1 micron
shorter gaskets
50
professions
5 years
197
of research and development
components
135
engineers, technicians
and watchmakers working in
the Cartier Ideas Laboratory
32 days
of power reserve in the same volume
6
patent applications
-37%
energy consumption
for the oscillator in vacuum
(1/1000th of a millimeter)
manufacturing tolerance
for some pieces of the movement
99.8%
vacuum inside the case
42 mm
2
diameter
times less energy consumed
The vacuumhoused watch
To reduce air resistance, the automobile
world’s answer is to design sleek,
aerodynamic cars. To get the same result
in the world of watchmaking, Cartier
decided to get rid of the air inside
the case of its concept watch cartier ID Two !
I
nside a watch case a mind-boggling 75%
of the energy is wasted through various friction
and from air resistance. The case may be airtight but inside
it each moving part, however small, undergoes aerodynamic
pressure which dampens its movement. After examining
the technical possibilities for improving the air penetration
coefficients, the team at the Manufacture’s research and
development laboratory had a brainwave: “What if, instead
of trying to mitigate the consequences of aerodynamic
pressure, we removed the cause ?” In other words : getting
rid of the air ! Despite its apparent extreme simplicity,
this revolutionary solution brought with it some equally
extreme technical difficulties. To avoid the risk of leaks,
the engineers had to design a case in just two parts,
without any screws whatsoever. The seals between the case
block and the back as well as those surrounding the setting
crown have been made more airtight by the addition
of nanoparticles.
At the heart of Cartier ID Two, the movement beats freely
inside a ceramic case whose perfect transparency reflects
the absolute vacuum it houses. And in the absence
of all aerodynamic resistance, it can develop considerably
more energy than traditional watches.
19
12
24
20
A shared passion
for innovation
Since 1899, Cartier has been based in Paris,
but also in London and New York. Number 13,
Rue de la Paix, the historical heart of the Maison’s
The Manufacture in La Chaux-de-Fonds,
Switzerland, blending state-of-the-art technologies
and traditional crafts, is where this new generation
expertise, was where the first mass-market “Santos”
watch was sold in 1911. By bringing out the novel
concept of the wristwatch, these watchmakers
had already played a pioneering role…
of watchmakers now designs and makes Cartier
watches. With Cartier ID One and Cartier ID Two,
the Maison continues to innovate and leave
its mark on Fine Watchmaking.
Edouard Mignon
IDeas for
tomorrow
I
n Cartier’s 33,000 m 2 Manufacture, over 1 500 employees
exercising 175 different crafts create the Ballon Bleu,
Tank, Santos, Pasha, Roadster and Calibre collections.
Along with the fantasy and esthetic beauty provided for its
customers, Cartier has constantly sought to bring a touch
of innovation from the outset. “True innovation means
clearing new paths never taken before and thinking up
Having made watches since 1853, Cartier has
left its mark on the watchmaking world with
novel solutions,” says Edouard Mignon, Product
and Services Director, in charge of Cartier Watchmaking
some historic innovations. In the secrecy of
its Manufacture, Cartier continues to create
new fine watchmaking pieces and above all
Innovation. “It means starting with a blank sheet to tackle
problems that mean something to the customer, be
to innovate in order to invent the future. A case
in point is its “concept-watches”, a world first.
Edouard Mignon,
Product and Services Director,
in charge of Cartier
Watchmaking Innovation
they long-standing problems never satisfactorily solved,
or very new ones, keeping in mind the desire for ever more
reliability or new functions. It means having not just one,
but several ideas, because you need a lot of ideas to arrive
at an innovation, with some being discarded in the process.
The challenge of innovation is the ability to point
the way while remaining capable of transposing solutions
in series. The principle of the concept-watch has one
essential advantage: it lets you set your course without
being fixated on the means, and offers you the ongoing
ability to adapt to certain pitfalls.”
At Cartier, innovation can be seen in the watches
themselves, but also in the methods and state of mind.
Cartier ID Two’s movement is innovative
in terms of its design, materials and geometry.
“We have totally rethought the organization of our
Manufacture by bringing together professions, workforce
and talents. As of now, we have grouped crafts traditionally
kept apart, and for example, only a few meters now
separate the most sophisticated CNC work stations from
Man and machine, the eye loupe and
the CNC machine, talent and ultraprecision: the marriage of expertise
and high technology, inseparable
components of today’s watchmaking.
the chamfering posts where components are decorated
by hand in time-honoured fashion. And they see each
materials derived from other industries, destined to express
a vision of the future and point the way forward.”
other’s work, they talk and swap ideas, and are part
of a collective buzz.”
In 2012, Cartier took another step forward with the
release of Cartier ID Two, building on the key elements of
Innovation has always been a driving force of Cartier’s
business values, and since 2007 has been accorded
a dedicated structure dubbed the “Think Tank”: a fourstory 3000 m2 building housing 135 watch engineers
and specialists. That is where the Cartier “Innovation
Cartier ID One and adding a new mission of technological
exploration: to halve a watch’s energy consumption
by increasing its power while reducing friction and losses.
While Cartier ID Two is a concept watch that will remain
a unique piece, it highlights new technological prospects
& Development” concept, or “Cartier ID” for short, was
born : a true laboratory of ideas where tomorrow’s watches
that tomorrow will culminate in opening up possibilities
of miniaturization, of functions unthinkable up till now
are invented in partnership with cutting-edge industries
and top universities. For Edouard Mignon, the Maison’s
commitment to innovation truly came to the fore in
2009, with the unveiling of Cartier ID One: “A unique
watch, without oil, that never needs readjusting, virtually
and levels of performance never before achieved.
everlasting, made with cutting-edge technologies and
A complicated
woman
F
or Carole Forestier, the present builds on the past.
As for the future she will settle for nothing less
than perfection. As Head of the “Movement Creation”
department of the Cartier watch Manufacture,
this French designer is constantly looking towards
the future to conceive watches that will see the light
of day five or ten years later.
Carole belongs to the very narrow circle of watchmakers
Carole Forestier
capable of creating fine-watchmaking movements with
the most sophisticated complications. In an industry where
women are omnipresent, she is somewhat astonished
that people should be surprised to find a young woman
in charge of such a technical and strategic division.
Since 1999, she has conceived, designed and developed
complicated movements, either to respond to marketing
ideas from the Maison, or by coming up with new ideas
of her own. How many mechanisms has she designed ?
In designing new complication
watches for Cartier, Carole
Forestier drew on the research
of the Manufacture’s Innovation
Department and used some of
the technological solutions
of the ID programme.
Carole Forestier,
Head of the Cartier “Movement
Creation” Department
She has lost count. But what she can say for sure is that
when the idea came up of using some of the technological
innovations of Cartier ID, she naturally knew that she
wanted them for the new Astrotourbillon that she had
to design. To create this novel watch, the first practical
application of a concept watch, Carole Forestier was able
to draw on the research carried out in the Manufacture’s
Innovation Department. For example, the very elongated
tourbillon carriage weighs a mere 0.46 g thanks to
the cutting-edge materials of Cartier ID One that combine
strength with ultra-light weight. And since for Cartier
innovation can only be justified if it means something,
this Astrotourbillon carbon crystal revolving around
the watch’s dial offers a fine view of the escapement
mechanism. High technology at the service of emotion.
At Cartier, the future looks bright…
Astrotourbillon
Carbon Crystal
The watch born from
Concept watches such as Cartier ID One and Cartier
ID Two were never meant to be marketed, despite
the years of research and all the investment that went
into making them. Their role is to express a vision
2012
Movement
- Adjustment-free and lubrication-free escapement
- Tourbillon with axis at the center of the movement
of the future and point the way to future goals.
Each of the innovations they contain may one day become
a reality. And Cartier’s new Astrotourbillon Carbon
- Tourbillon bridges, pallet and escapement wheel
in carbon crystal
Crystal watch, presented in July 2012, uses some of the
technological solutions tried and tested in Cartier ID One:
- Escapement pivots in tungsten carbide
- Number of jewels: 17
the niobium-titanium case, carbon crystal components,
and the adjustment-free and lubrication-free pallet
and escapement wheel. From the one-off concept-watch
to the production run, Cartier innovation pushes back
the boundaries of watchmaking while cultivating
the esthetic values of Fine Watchmaking. Cartier has totally
rethought the concept of the tourbillon and come up
with a carriage with its axis of rotation at the center
of the movement. The off-center balance wheel bridge
is designed as an arrow and turns once round the dial
every minute, pointing out the seconds. Innovation
at the service of functionality.
Coming in 2013...
- Mechanical movement with manual winding,
Caliber 9460 MC
- Power reserve: 50 hours
- Diameter: 40.1 mm
- Thickness: 9 mm
- Number of components: 195
- Frequency: 3 Hz, or 21,600 vibrations per hour
Case
- Rotonde de Cartier 47 mm, niobium/titanium
- Circular-grained crown set with
black synthetic spinel cabochon
- Alligator strap
- Adjustable folding clasp in 18-carat white gold
- Water resistant to 30 m / 100 ft / 3 bars
Cartier Manufacture, La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland.
Photo credits
P. 2 : © Cartier 2010. P. 3 : Philippe Poivre © Cartier 2010. P. 4 : © Joël Von Allmen/Cartier. P. 6-7 : © Rue des
Archives/Collection Grégoire - akg-images - interfoto/LA COLLECTION - Roger-Viollet - Mary Evans/Rue
des Archives - Corbis - SSPL/Getty - Collections du musée international d’horlogerie, La Chaux-de-Fonds.
Photo du Musée internationale d’horlogerie. P. 8-9 : © Cliché Nadar, collection Médiathèque du patrimoine.
Archives photographiques/CMN, Paris - © N.Welsh/collection Cartier - © Cartier - © Collections du musée
international d’horlogerie, La Chaux-de-Fonds. Photo du musée international d’horlogerie - © akg-images © Rue des Archives/SPPS. P. 11 : © Cartier 2010. P. 14-15 : © Joël Von Allmen/Cartier. P. 16-17 et 20-21: © Joël
Von Allmen/Cartier – Studio C4 design/Cartier. P. 22-23 : © Archives Cartier - © Alain Buu/Cartier. P. 24-25 :
© Joël Von Allmen/Cartier. P. 26-27 : © G.Nencioli/Cartier - Alain Buu/Cartier. P. 28-29 : © G.Nencioli/Cartier
- © Alain Buu/Cartier. P. 30-31 : © Philippe Ketterer/Cartier. P. 32-33 : © Olivier Ziegler/Cartier.
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