Cartier

Review: Cartier Haute Horlogerie VIP Dinner in Hong Kong

Review: Cartier Haute Horlogerie VIP Dinner in Hong Kong

Organized by iW (Chinese Edition) Magazine

On the night of 24th June, I went to an impressive Cartier Haute Horlogerie dinner in Hong Kong.
The theme of the night was the new HH Collection of Cartier watches.

Cocktail Time

We gathered around for the cocktail at the Heritage 1881 Cartier Boutique. The boutique has 2 floors and I was very impressed by the layout and design! It’s very spacious; every product is nicely laid out and rooms are available for clients for private viewing and try on.

Dinner Time

After visiting the boutique, we strolled to the St. George Restaurant at Hullett House on-site. The setting of the room was amazing, it truly reflected the heritage of this place which used to be the old Hong Kong Marine Police Headquarters.

Mr. Nigel Luk (Cartier) gave the opening speech and welcomed all of us to this dinner.

He specially congratulated a loving couple who were celebrating their wedding anniversary that evening.

Afterwards Mr. Alfred Lung, Publisher of iW magazine gave the opening speech and introduced the speakers for the evening – fellow-PuristS and friend of iW magazine: Dr. Melvyn Teillol-Foo (MTF), and also Mr. Vincent Sahuc from Cartier marketing department.

Alfred Lung (iW Magazine)

Presentation by MTF

Melvyn started with some history of the Cartier brand and Cartier as a watch maker and also the old CPCP collection. Then, he shared with us his thoughts about haute horlogerie especially on machine finish vs. hand finish, and finally, his picks from the Cartier 2010 HH collection - which were the Santos Dumont Skeleton, the Astrotourbillon, and the Calibre de Cartier flying tourbillion.

Vincent Sahuc (Cartier)

Presentation by Vincent

Vincent introduced us to the Cartier Manufacture in La Chaux de Fond and also gave us a brief tour of the manufacture by a video. Then, he further elaborated on the 3 watches chosen by MTF.

Santos Dumont skeleton

This watch is fitted with the caliber 9611MC movement which is the same movement in the Santos 100 palladium case from the 2009 HH collection. The inspiration for this watch came from movement skeletonized in the shape of characteristic Cartier Roman Numerals. The designer of this movement is a lady called Ms. Carole Forestier.

I personally prefer the Santos Dumont Case rather than the Santos 100, as I prefer a skeleton watch to be thinner.

Calibre de Cartier flying tourbillion

This watch is fitted with the Caliber 9452MC movement which is the same movement fitted in the Tank Americaine, Santos 100 and Ballon Bleu tourbillons. The case is Cartier’s latest design, and it looks more youthful masculine. The caliber is marked with the Geneva Seal. Vincent gave us a quick review of some key criteria for the Geneva Seal before showing us the movie about this movement.

Astrotourbillon

This watch is fitted with 9451MC Movement that took Cartier five years to develop. This is a very impressive movement – it is a revolutionary movement with tourbillon axis at the centre of the watch. The whole cage completes a revolution on its axis in just one minute, thus enabling the balance to rotate around the entire surface of the dial.

Vincent mentioned there are 2 key challenges for this movement:

1) The balance is off centre in relation to the rotating cage; the solution is a platinum counterweight at the opposite end.

2) In order to minimize the energy needed for the cage to rotate (plus the platinum counterweight of course) the cage is crafted in titanium rather steel.