Révélation d'une Panthère

RÉVÉLATION D’UNE PANTHÈRE WATCH
The magic of the panther

Cartier’s 2017 Révélation d’une Panthère watch showcased a miniature spectacle within the dial of a Ronde Louis Cartier watch. By a sleight of watchmaking magic, the wrist’s movements cause a panther’s head formed of a multitude of gold beads to appear or disappear. The piece plays with time, giving it shape and making it rise and fall through the ancestral technique of the hourglass: a creative feat born of five years of work, the fruit of daring and tenacity heralded by the public and consolidated with two patent applications.
This year the Maison had to go further still. How could it possibly outdo the surprise and wonder inspired by the first watch? Unless it moved from gold to diamonds?

The idea was both captivating and legitimate for the watchmaker and jeweller. Cartier returned to studying the technical process, which needed to be entirely transposed. Adapting a secret technique to an infinitely small scale proved a major task: the gold beads were replaced with 650 minuscule round brilliant-cut diamonds, which depict the animal’s graphic form against a black lacquered dial.
The Maison’s two arts of watchmaking and jewellery-making take centre stage on a watch with an entirely diamond-paved bezel and bracelet. The fleeting portrait testifies to the Maison’s talent for innovation and its pioneering nature – if only for the time of an apparition.