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Cartier d'Art - enamelling and marquetry
A reader asked about the Cartier enamel watches via email (click here for my tour of the enamelling atelier at Cartier) and I decided to post the press release on the Cartier d'Art watches since others may be interested. The Cartier d'Art watches showcase traditional artisan skills like enamel and marquetry like the tiger motif dial on a Santos 100 Flying Tourbillon. They are all limited editions and boutique exclusives.
- SJX
Press release:
Cartier d'Art watches in enamel
Deep inside the workshops, in accordance with the great traditions set out by master enamellers, lacquerers, marquetry craftsmen, engravers and gem-setters, our craftsmen sign the Cartier d'Art watches by hand.
Providing opportunities for self-expression and a private, precious frame for spectacular artwork to be worn on the wrist: this is how Cartier conceives of its watches, which feature original combinations of enamel, marquetry, engraving and diamonds. Galleries of animal images displaying their highly coloured forms on the dials of timeless watches. Miniature marvels on which a tortoise, a panda, a tiger or even an elephant take centre-stage as they cross the dial, their silhouettes standing out sharply against a background of gold or diamonds.
Exceptional enamelling and marquetry in the history of Cartier: a tradition and a skill
It was on one of his trips to Russia at the end of the 19
th century that Louis Cartier discovered the enamel that the goldsmith Fabergé had mastered so spectacularly. Fabergé's technique consisted of coating a base of silver or 14 carat gold with five or six layers of enamel chosen from a palette of 144 shades. When the base, which had been engraved with lines and dots, was heated to 700-800°C a pattern of geometric shapes became visible through the transparent enamel. The effect was miraculous, like a gently undulating sheet of silk.Cartier adopted enamelling, refined the engraving and created new colour pairings such as blue-green, purple-green and royal blue-turquoise. His designs, which were produced in Russia according to his drawings, reinterpreted the expertise he had borrowed.
He assimilated and personalised the technique. Watches, cigarette cases, ink bottles decorated with garlands…the objects he created have become part of history and are displayed in some of the world's most famous museums. Among them is the egg made in 1906 and sold four years later to the city of Paris, which then presented it to Tsar Nicholas II as a gift. Today, it is the property of the Metropolitan Museum of New York.
Enamelling is a technique that is closely linked to jewellery, as is marquetry, which Cartier has also adopted over the course of its history. A subtle and sophisticated combination of precious woods in many shades, it is used and adapted by jewellers to create beautiful, rare objects.
Over time and through a long series of creations, Cartier has refined its approach to enamelling, combining it with marquetry, gold and diamonds and using it in more contemporary designs.
These included ever more daring decorative motifs in which rare woods depicted the plumage of the falcon, green and blue enamel imitated snakeskin and the grain of wood and stone reproduced the geometric pattern of a tortoise shell.
Cloisonné enamel: colours hemmed with gold
Golden threads in relief delineate the areas that will receive the fusible enamel powder. This is composed principally of silica, quartz, borax and any of 100 elements coloured with metallic oxides that the enameller heats to exactly 840°C.
Champlevé enamel: colours applied to a golden surface
This type of enamel is applied to the hollows of an engraving that the watchmaker can, depending on the design, extend beyond the dial onto the case itself. This artistic craft consists of reproducing an engraved design, which serves as a template. Several operations and firings are required to create a complete dial. Precise hand movements gradually bring about the dazzling metamorphosis, breathing life into the brilliance of the lines beneath the surface of the enamel.
Marquetry, a kaleidoscope of precious wood
It is the design that determines the choice of the precious woods used in the marquetry, depending on their colours, the direction of their veins and their texture. This rigorous selection stage is followed by the ultra-precise cutting of minute fragments of wood, which are then pieced together like a perfect, delicate puzzle. This is a goldsmith standard of craftsmanship in wood that Cartier has refined, introducing unexpected new materials like coral, agate and onyx to further enhance its appearance. These pieces achieve a striking degree of realism, incorporating both perspective and relief thanks to an astonishing mastery of reflections and contrasts.
Each of these unique dials involves some thirty stages and requires more than a hundred hours of work. They are authentic pieces of art that bear witness to a rare, highly advanced area of craftsmanship that Cartier perpetuates in its most magical pieces of watchmaking.
Santos 100 watch. Boutique exclusivity. Extra large model. 18K pink gold case. Heptagonal crown set with a faceted sapphire. Sapphire crystal. Dial in 18K rhodiumized white gold. Tiger motif in wood marquetry. 18K pink gold sword-shaped hands. Alligator-skin strap. Security clasp in 18K pink gold. Mechanical Manufacture movement with manual winding caliber 9452MC. Geneva Seal certified. Flying tourbillon with display of seconds via the C-shaped tourbillon carriage. Transparent back. Water resistant to 30 meters / 100 feet / 3 bars. Limited and numbered edition of 40 timepieces.
This message has been edited by SJX on 2010-11-24 07:26:28