It possesses all the qualities one will ever need in an elegant sports watch: a large and solid case, curved lugs that sit comfortably on the wrist and an extremely legible dial.Įven with its considerable presence, the Calibre was instantly recognizable on the wrist as a Cartier. They kicked things off with the Calibre de Cartier, the one that set the standard for all succeeding Calibre watches. For its audience to enjoy their in-house movements, Cartier introduced the Calibre, its first widely produced sports watch featuring a Cartier-made movement. It was a proud declaration of the brand’s readiness to create their own movements.Īs a complicated Geneva Seal watch, the Flying Tourbillon belonged to the haute horology category and carried a prohibitive price tag. These watches were the first to feature a Cartier manufacture movement and even earned the Geneva Seal, a prestigious mark of excellence for Swiss-made timepieces. That changed with the introduction of the Ballon Bleu Flying Tourbillon in 2008 and the Calibre de Cartier Flying Tourbillon in 2010. While Cartier has long been a master of creating timeless designs, one constant point of criticism was its dependence on base movements from other companies. Here’s a retrospective on the game-changing Cartier Calibre collection.Ĭartier Calibre and Ballon Bleu Flying Tourbillon (photo: Sotheby’s) By introducing the brand’s first serially produced in-house movement with an undeniably masculine design, the Calibre put Cartier alongside Rolex, Omega, and IWC in creating hard-wearing watches. The Cartier Calibre is one of the shining masterpieces from this segment. In the 2010s, the Maison sought to prove itself more than just a pretty face with robust and functional sports watches. Cartier reports that the 1904 movement has performed better in the field than their own high expectations had predicted.From the iconic Tank to the sophisticated Rotonde, Cartier has come up with a long list of elegant designs that set the standard for fine watchmaking. The chronograph features column wheel control of the start, stop, and reset operations, and the chronograph engages via the vertical clutch architecture, allowing for continuous running of the chronograph with no ill effects on accuracy. The 1904 CH MC movement is based on the same 1904 PS MC movement found in the classic Calibre, which surprisingly was developed to be able to support an integrated chronograph design. It’s nice to have the track, especially for reading elapsed seconds, but it would not have fit on the dial without as it does in the classic Calibre. The only detail of the case and dial that I have reservations about is the railroad minute track on the bezel. The 3 digit date window is symmetrically placed at 6 o’clock. Retained from the instantly iconic Calibre dial with this Chronograph is the large Roman XII and Romans hours on the upper hemisphere and luminous stick markers on the lower, a sort of whimsical variation on the “California” dial. The dial has a classic chronograph layout, though it is unusual in that the there are no running seconds in a subdial rather, the 30-minute counter is at 3 o’clock and the 12-hour counter is at 9 o’clock. I wrote recently about my appreciating of the Tank Louis Cartier:Īnd I have also like the 42 mm models that are part of the Rontonde collection, whether simple like this: Cartier seems to recognize this reality and has been concentrating resources into creating more masculine watches these past few years. What I have traditionally, and to be honest, selfishly, not liked about Cartier is that a majority of their production, outside of the exclusive and very expensive Fine Watchmaking collection, is geared toward female clientele. I have long been impressed by Cartier’s ability to create a diversity of watch designs while still ensuring they all retain the Cartier “house style.” If you removed the brand name from the dial I’m confident that you would still be able to identify the watch as coming from Cartier, just as you could drop the needle on a random piece of Mozart’s mature music and identify it unmistakably as coming from him, regardless of it being opera, symphonic, concerto, or chamber music.