Baselworld/SIHH

But Cartier sells even more Ballon Bleu and one of the notable additions to that range is the Ballon Bleu Extra Flat. Being very slim but 46 mm wide, this seems almost razor sharp. Though not part of the Fine Watchmaking range this is an upper end watch that would have been in the Collection Privee Cartier Paris had it not been discontinued. I believe the movement is a Frederic Piguet calibre. The blue dial version in platinum is limited to 99 pieces.

Also new for 2011 is the Ronde Louix Cartier XL with eccentric seconds at 10 pm, a dead giveaway for the Piaget movement inside. I never liked the 10 o’clock seconds on the Piaget and I still don’t like it here. This is available in several dial variations, including the basic silver-tone guilloche, but for some reason I only have photos of the diamond pave dial.

Cartier presents a slew of jewellery watches each year so we’ll just cover a few highlights. First is a couple from the Cirque de Animalier range: a bird, a lizard and a turtle.

This Panthere watch is particularly fetching.

A Chinese motif secret watch that flips open to reveal the time.

Aside from the Fine Watchmaking range, which will be covered further down, Cartier also beefed up its Metier d’Art collection. As the name suggests, the watches are decorated with a variety of artisanal techniques – enamelling, marquetry and mosaic.

Demonstrating a rarely seen enamelling technique, the Rotonde with bear motif has a dial of plique-à-jour paillonné enamel. Similar in principle to stained glass where the enamel is applied to a skeletonised frame, plique-à-jour paillonné enamel was first used by Cartier in the early 20^th century but revived this year for this watch. The graduated tones on the dial are stunning and ethereal.

This Ballon Bleu with monkey motif is decorated with champlevé grand feu and set with diamonds.

Also decorated with the same enamel technique is this Santos 100 with hummingbird motif. Like the monkey Ballon Bleu, this Santos is not to my taste though I respect the craft it embodies.

One of my favourite watches of the fair is the Tortue XL jaguar motif from the Metier d’Art range. Hand-engraved in relief and decorated with champlevé grand feu enamel, this watch makes a radical statement. The detail of the jaguar is amazing – look at the close-ups of its eyes.

More subtle but no less challenging in terms of technique is the Rotonde de Cartier jumping hours with bear in wood marquetry. 38 pieces of wood which have been painstaking cut into shape are pieced together like a Lilliputian puzzle to form the bear’s head. And though it’s only 38 pieces it takes 160 hours to complete.

Another watch whose appearance belies its complexity is the Rotonde with turtle mosaic. The marquetry bear’s head is on an enormous scale compared to this. Formed with 1167 miniscule pieces of semi-precious stone only 0.75 by 0.4 mm wide, the turtle takes 60 hours just to form by hand.

And on to the Fine Watchmaking collection at last. At the very top Cartier presented the Calibre de Cartier Grande Complication, containing a Renaud et Papi chronograph, perpetual calendar and tourbillon movement.

Three other high-end Calibre de Cartier models were also launched. The first is the perpetual calendar with retrograde previously available in the Tortue XL case.

Next is the Calibre de Cartier Multiple Time Zone, one of the most innovative time zone watches I have come across. Home time is shown on the day-night hand in the aperture from four to seven, while local time is shown on the main hands. These are linked to the cities disc on the side of the case which is rotated by a button integrated into the crown guards.

But two features set this watch apart. The first is what Carole Forestier calls a jetlag indicator. Displayed in the window on the upper half of the dial, it shows the difference between the local and home time. Second is summer time which is why the cities disc has two lines. The engraved symbols on the case denote North and South Hemisphere, as well as winter and summer, indicating which line of the city disc to read for the season.

The last Calibre de Cartier complication is the Astrotourbillon in titanium which was previewed at length on the Cartier forum here .

A notable new direction for the Fine Watchmaking collection is the addition of the Pasha case. Two models were presented, the first is a tourbillon with chronograph and eight day power reserve using a Renaud et Papi movement.

The other new Pasha is a skeleton flying tourbillon in 42 mm case. Though it uses almost the same movement as the earlier skeleton tourbillon, I like the looks and proportion of this one.

Using an almost identical movement is the Rotonde skeleton tourbillon which was previously only available in white gold. Now presented in rose gold making it very striking; it will probably look good on a ladies’ wrist.

Skeleton watches are the best seller in the Fine Watchmaking range and the Santos Dumont Skeleton in ADLC titanium case will certainly add to that success. For a conservative house like Cartier this is a radical step which takes the aesthetic of the Fine Watchmaking line in a whole other direction. This is one of the highlights of 2011, both for the watch itself and also for the bold departure from the norm for Cartier.

Also in white gold with baguette diamond-set case.