M2 2021 Luxury Watch Preview: Cartier

M2 brings you its top watch picks in a series featuring the best of this year’s luxury timepiece releases.

Cartier Ballon Bleu

The Ballon Bleu de Cartier floats through the world of watchmaking, defying gravity with its ethereal charm. This model features a convex-curved 36mm steel case with a width of 12mm and is water-resistant to 30m. The sculpted 18K fluted yellow gold crown is nestled in the side in a homage to classical Cartier style and set with a synthetic cabochon-shaped spinel. Out front, the silvered guilloché opaline dial is populated with Roman numerals while the time is marked off by blued-steel sword-shaped hands proudly presented under sapphire crystal. Inside is a self-winding mechanical movement. Comes with a polished steel bracelet with centrally-positioned 18K rose gold links.

Tank Louis Cartier Watch

Art Deco – the sense of style that swept the world back in the 1920s and 30s and still affects art, design and architecture even to this day. Geometric, symmetrical and simple, it was the complete opposite of the overtly ornate and detailed Art Nouveau that had dominated in the decades beforehand. One of the major influences on Art Deco was the original Tank watch released by Cartier in 1919. The watch the ‘jeweller of kings and the king of jewellers’ as King Edward VII of Great Britain called Louis Cartier, wore himself, featured rounded tops on its lugs instead of proud rectangular lines, a detail the entire Art Deco movement was based upon.

This large model Tank watch features an 18K rose gold case 33.7mm by 25.5mm and with a width of 6.6mm and is water-resistant to 30m. The beaded crown is set with a sapphire cabochon while the silvered beaded dial is dominated by blued-steel sword-shaped hands under a mineral crystal. Comes with a semi-matt brown alligator skin strap complete with ardillon buckle in 18K rose gold.