With a historical past relationship way back to 1847, it’s arduous to look past the momentous day when Louis-François Cartier took over his grasp Adolphe Picard’s workshop located at 29 rue Montorgueil in Paris that has since sparked 177 years of splendour. The early days of the maison have been targeted on jewellery-making for an enviable group of royal clientele. It was not till 1904 when Monsieur Cartier’s grandson Louis Cartier created Cartier’s first wristwatch — the Santos — for his aviator pal Alberto Santos-Dumont.

Whereas the watch was meant to be a purposeful instrument for Santos-Dumont, little did Louis Cartier know that it will develop into one of many pivotal icons of Cartier’s historical past and alter the maison’s trajectory. Affect of the Santos watch proliferated and — slowly however absolutely — different era-defining watch creations such because the Tonneau, Tortue, and Tank got here into existence. The ebb and move of Cartier’s watches over the many years to return in the end necessitated their very own manufacturing facility, which lastly opened its doorways in 2001. Different services within the neighbouring Swiss Cantons type the better Cartier Watchmaking Manufacture. The primary steps of watchmaking start with Glovier, located within the Jura. Metal and gold watches are produced and assembled in Villars-sur-Glâne, situated within the canton of Fribourg, whereas Cartier’s newest applied sciences are examined in Couvet. Cartier’s Maison des Métiers d’Artwork — situated inside an outdated renovated farm — is a stone’s throw from the La Chaux-de-Fonds facility.

Nestled within the coronary heart of La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland, the Cartier Manufacture stands tall as a beacon of unparalleled craftsmanship and innovation. It’s located amongst the esteemed firm, with the likes of Patek Philippe’s Crêt-du-Locle facility, the Gruebel Forsey atelier, TAG Heuer and Breitling’s manufacture and motion maestro La Joux-Perret, in and round its better neighborhood. It ushered in a brand new period for Cartier on the flip of the millennium as varied purposeful our bodies corresponding to design, manufacturing, meeting and help have been housed below the identical roof. Nevertheless, the importance of the Cartier Manufacture goes past that, because the fusion and focus of time-honoured savoir-faire and cutting-edge know-how breathe life into the long-lasting Cartier watches.

In contrast to dusty or dilapidated workshops, the Cartier Manufacture is a state-of-the-art facility spanning 33,000m2 of area zoned for varied departments inside its metallic and glass facade. Heavy industrial machines corresponding to CNC equipment are housed on the primary stage, whereas an environment-controlled cleanroom is dwelling to the calibre meeting and high quality inspection groups. Different departments within the manufacture embody the restoration, high quality management, design, sprucing and meeting groups.

From Paper to Steel

The lifetime of a Cartier watch begins with an concept, most of the time ephemeral — simply misplaced — than concrete. And simply as an image paints a thousand phrases, there isn’t a higher option to articulate an concept than with a sketch. Armed with concepts from the advertising and marketing group, the designers interpret and translate them accordingly via sketches from varied angles. It’s right here the place the proliferation of creativeness and creativity comes alive. Gouache (an opaque watercolour) additional strengthens the sketches by introducing colors — corresponding to colored gem stones set on a yellow-gold case and bezel — to an in any other case black-and-white world. A fast tidbit right here: whereas Cartier was below the tutelage of the recently-departed CEO and now chairman of Cartier Tradition & Philanthropy Cyrille Vigneron for the previous eight years, all sketches — whether or not for normal manufacturing or customized shopper orders — should be personally accepted by him. A signature on the underside proper signifies approval for the design groups to proceed with prototyping. In any other case, it’s again to the drawing blocks to refine the sketches.

Resin replicas are then created via 3D printing. It permits the event groups to evaluate the watch’s aesthetics, such because the curvature of the Ballon Bleu de Cartier or the suppleness of the Pasha de Cartier’s bracelet earlier than precise working prototypes are created primarily based on technical dossiers. This documentation is a essential a part of the manufacturing course of as — primarily based on the experience and expertise required — industrial processes are being correctly outlined and mapped out by the economic processes division. Moreover, it permits the processes to be simulated, checked and fine-tuned accordingly to satisfy precise manufacturing portions when they’re later outlined.

As we toured via the advanced, a number of attention-grabbing areas caught our consideration, spanning each conventional and forward-thinking strategies. On the archaic finish of the spectrum lies the mineral crystal shaping group, which — based on Cartier — is an virtually misplaced talent in Switzerland. Since a good variety of Cartier’s watches are available unconventional shapes — such because the Baignoire or famed Crash — mineral crystals are used as an alternative of sapphire crystal, given their malleability to suit these instances. Relatively than using machines and know-how to form the mineral crystals, an artisan does it manually with a blowtorch till they’re malleable sufficient to be formed to totally different watch mannequin specs. Inspections alongside the best way are accomplished with the human eye, not machines.

On the other finish of the spectrum lies the specialised equipment for devoted processes, corresponding to milling and CNC machines within the bracelet manufacturing division and high quality inspection equipment. These machines employed within the former division are liable for fashioning bracelet hyperlinks from metallic bars. As much as 9 bars could be processed concurrently, with the best bracelet requiring 30 seconds per hyperlink, whereas extra advanced examples require as much as 90 seconds. Since Cartier pays shut consideration to high quality and reliability, inspections are accomplished all through manufacturing. An automatic four-step check sees watches submerged in water and acid, and uncovered to magnetic waves and excessive temperatures to make sure they’re resistant to every factor. If one is questioning how Cartier ascertained the reliability of its watch bracelet, there’s a machine devoted to wiggling the life out of it to make sure its structural integrity.

On the midpoint of the spectrum lies Cartier’s restoration division, which is answerable for restoring classic Cartier watches and clocks. The extremely specialised division represents one of many pinnacles of Cartier’s watchmaking would possibly, as extremely expert watchmakers revive historic items again to life. Whether or not it’s a beauty or mechanical restoration, the group employs varied strategies, from faithfully reproducing period-specific elements present in archival blueprints to devising revolutionary options to unravel sure conundrums.

The place Splendour and Desires Come Alive

Inaugurated in 2014, Cartier’s Maison des Métiers d’Artwork is a stone’s throw away from the Cartier Manufacture. In contrast to the gleaming structure of the Cartier Manufacture, it takes up an outdated farm. Throughout the hallowed partitions are even older artisanal strategies teeming with custom, heritage and secrets and techniques delivered to life via boundless creativity and creativeness. Time is seemingly altered inside the atelier as these age-old strategies are tailored and included into fashionable executions that defy the standard codes of magnificence. Whereas there are various strategies, they’re divided into three major classes: the artwork of fireplace, metallic, and composition.

Enamelling — categorised below the artwork of fireplace — is a method that wants no introduction. Nevertheless, Cartier’s mastery throughout varied strategies spanning the likes of and never restricted to champlevé, cloisonné, plique a jour and grisaille enamelling deserves consideration. Enamel first exists as colored glass powders in paint type earlier than being repeatedly fired in kilns (as much as 10 rounds of portray and firing) at totally different temperatures to set or vitrify it. Whereas enamel is generally contained within the watch dial, the Cartier Crash Tigrée Metamorphoses options enamel on its bezel, too. Right here, artisans extensively used enamelling to amplify or, at instances, complement different artisanal strategies. The nuances of color are expertly captured via opaque, translucent or gradated enamelling on varied surfaces corresponding to silver paillettes or in engraved recesses of the stripes (also referred to as champlevé enamelling). Enamels in shades of blue and inexperienced used on this reference are achieved with cobalt oxide (for the blue) and copper oxide (for the inexperienced).

Etruscan granulation, filigree and flamed metallic are strategies that fall below the artwork of metallic. The previous dates again to 4 BC, when the Etruscan civilisation popularised the ornamental approach that concerned tiny beads lining jewelry surfaces. Gold wires are first heated earlier than tiny items are reduce into water-filled crucibles. The fast cooling shapes the gold items into spheres, that are then sieved and sorted based on dimension. Whereas soldering the beads to type patterns is the primary software that involves thoughts, an revolutionary use of viscous liquid, sapphire dividers and gravity to type the panther head define seen within the charming Révélation d’une Panthère is an illustration of the maison’s creativity.

Flamed metallic — one of many division’s newer Métiers d’Artwork strategies — entails heating metallic surfaces to attain totally different colors via oxidation. The method begins with heating the dial plate to attain a uniform blue hue earlier than undesirable elements are scratched off to create motifs of Cartier’s famed menagerie. Artisans then masks the blued portion earlier than heating the dial plates to attain totally different shades of brown starting from beige to darkish brown. Given how such oxidation processes are irreversible, the problem of the approach is compounded in direction of the later phases of flaming. It takes a talented eye and understanding of the craft to know the precise second to cease the firing course of. Cartier’s closing artwork of composition is probably one of the vital distinctive strategies as mosaics and marquetries involving wooden, straw, flower, wooden and gold, and straw and gold come collectively to create a watch dial. Seemingly random shapes and mismatched colors are composed collectively to create summary or real looking motifs.

Because the Maison des Métiers d’Artwork celebrates and displays on the previous 10 years, the artisans proceed dedicating themselves to works of magnificence and are united to satisfy the Maison des Métiers d’Artwork’s mission: to protect, innovate, and share its distinctive experience. Provided that some strategies have been on the point of extinction at one level, there may be hope that these time capsules of yesterday can be saved secure and handed on for generations of tomorrow.

This text was first seen on Mens Folio Singapore.

For extra on the newest in luxurious watch reads, click on right here.