Baignoire Allongée

THE BAIGNOIRE,  A SIGNATURE WATCH

To reveal beauty in all its guises: that is an enduring concept at Cartier, a filter through which all creation is viewed and an idea which gave rise to the Baignoire.

It all began with an unprecedented creative step taken to reveal the power of watchmaking design hidden in ordinary forms. Cartier took this inspiration quite literally by designing an initial oval in the 1910s that would later be transcended by several years of formal research. Transforming  objects and embracing beauty are two key components of Cartier’s stylistic vocabulary and here this combined approach resulted in the birth of the Baignoire watch.

The Baignoire watch is worn by women in the know, who embrace it for its obvious style and make it their own. It is a signature watch for women who have their sights set high, who forsake trends and fashions and choose this piece for its timeless French chic.

It wins over cultured women blessed with great taste such as Catherine Deneuve, Romy Schneider and Jeanne Moreau – women who are only concerned with freedom and wit, in beautiful objects and life in general.

The Baignoire – a shape, a concept  

The evocatively named Baignoire is a cult Cartier object. The story began in 1912, when Louis Cartier took the traditional round watch shape and stretched it out. His stylistic research culminated in two straight parallel lines closed by two curves, which formed the shape of a bathtub (“baignoire” in French) – hence its name. Its aesthetics would continue to evolve until eventually adopting its familiar slightly curved oval shape in the late 1950s with a dial stamped with Roman or Arabic numerals and bordered by gold gadroons. This constituted the first stage of a creative act.

Entirely reworked by Cartier’s design studio, today the Baignoire watch asserts its own eternal essence. Its exacting finishes strike a balance between pure design and sophisticated lines, paying homage to the cult 1958 model. Its design remains unchanged, yet the piece itself has evolved to offer a narrower bracelet and redesigned Roman numerals on a silvered sand-blasted background. The case back is seamlessly integrated into the case with waterresistance up to 30 m offering full conformance with modern quality standards. The Baignoire watch continues this aesthetic heritage by revealing a more dazzling presence than ever before as a graphic and sensual yellow-gold oval that adorns the wrist. On the white-gold version, the staggered diamond setting continues along the width of the gadroons to reach the case back. Although invisible, it represents the greatest refinement.

The Baignoire Allongée watch

The 1960s marked a second highlight in the history of the Baignoire watch. Swaying to the beat of “Swinging London”, the Baignoire Allongée saw the light of day in the workshops of Cartier London. The Baignoire Allongée was an oversized watch that stretched along women’s wrists, combining excessive chic with supreme simplicity. This definitive watch exudes style and character while hugging the forms of the wrist.

The Baignoire Allongée watch marks a third chapter in this incredible story. Like a fixation, the Baignoire watch brings forth new desires, such as the yearning to give its exuberant elegance texture and relief. Daring design creates an extravagant bezel as sculpted gold is worked into studs that adopt the shape of the clou de Paris in Cartier's jewellery repertoire.