NEW MODEL: Rotonde de Cartier Second Time-Zone Day/Night from Cartier

Felix Scholz

Watches & Wonders this year is all about the movements.

Cartier have announced a brand new edition to the Rotonde de Cartier collection, the Rotonde de Cartier Second Time Zone/ Day Night. Featuring a brand new in house movement from Cartier, this 42mm elegant beauty looks good from the surface, cased in either steel or pink/white gold with shimmering flinque enamel dials (we’re suckers for blue dials – and are dying to see the blue in the metal).

But a pretty case is only half the story – though the dial gives a hint of what lies beneath. The Second Time Zone/Day Night, as you would expect, has indicators for a second time zone (in an unusual retrograde implementation), that’s the indicator at 10 o’clock. This second timezone displays the hour on a retrograde ‘gauge’ style display. Besides that the watch has a lovely day/night indicator at 4, so you don’t accidently call your colleagues in Frankfurt at 4am, rather than a more reasonable 4pm. For example in the above picture, the home time is ten past ten, and the second time zone is ten past one in the afternoon. Easy and practical. Not content with this, Cartier have added a big date indicator at 12 and a sub seconds dial at 6. And they’ve managed to add all this functionality without making the dial look like a dogs breakfast (always a risk with complicated watches).

 

The powerhouse behind all these ‘small complications’ is the brand new, in house, 1904-FU MC movement. The movement has been developed over the last few years and impressively all the complications are adjusted via the single (iconic cabochon sapphire set) crown. Cartier are using their movement design capabilities to champion the everyday, smaller complications. They recognise that not every timepiece needs to be a perpetual calendar or equation of time, and that more common (and more useful) complications, such as a second timezone and highly legible big date, can be implemented in new and elegant ways. Clever work Cartier.

Specifications:

ROTONDE DE CARTIER SECOND TIME-ZONE DAY/NIGHT WATCH

CASE: 18-CARAT PINK GOLD, WHITE GOLD OR STEEL

CROWN: SET WITH A SAPPHIRE CABOCHON, OR SET WITH A SYNTHETIC CABOCHON-SHAPED SPINEL FOR THE STEEL MODEL

DIAMETER: 42MM

CASE THICKNESS: 11.96MM

CASEBACK: SAPPHIRE

BRACELET: ALLIGATOR

CALIBRE 1904-FU MC: SELF-WINDING MECHANICAL MANUFACTURE MOVEMENT,

HOURS, MINUTES, RETROGRADE SECOND TIME-ZONE, DAY/NIGHT INDICATION, LARGE DATE, SMALL SECONDS

CASING-UP DIAMETER: 111⁄2 LINES, OR 25.6 MM

THICKNESS: 5.2 MM

NUMBER OF JEWELS: 27

NUMBER OF PARTS: 230

BALANCE: 28,800

VIBRATIONS HOUR

POWER RESERVE: APPROX. 48 HOURS