Cartier is responsible for some of the most recognizable and successful wristwatches in the history of modern horology. The definitive expert on watch design, the French maison has always been a leader in challenging conventional approaches to watchmaking while pioneering new styling as a fixture in the broader fashion world.
There are a number of details that Cartier is most known for today: White dials with guilloché finishing, Roman numerals, blue sapphire cabochon crowns, and 'railroad' minutes tracks. Throughout the Cartier collections, the brand has scattered these details in a variety of configurations. But what would happen if Cartier stripped away all the excess? If it only took these details and made the simplest watch possible, what would emerge?
We’d wager it would look something like this.
A beautiful 20th century Cartier from the CPCP collection, this Ronde Louis Reference 2452 preserves all the fundamental characteristics that define Cartier but does away with pretty much all else. The 33.5mm platinum case with blue sapphire cabochon crown is simple; only two blued steel hands are fixed to the dial; and there’s no additional complications, confusion, or flair added. It’s just classic watchmaking in its purest form. Of course, the devil is in the details, and to that end Cartier has given the dial alternating guilloché and brushed treatments, with an outer open minute track, a central Roman-numeral hour track, and an inner Arabic-numeral 24-hour track occupying successively smaller rings.
Powered by the beautifully decorated Cartier Calibre MC430 manually-wound movement and paired to a red leather strap with tone-on-tone stitching and a Cartier-signed platinum deployant buckle, this simple dress watch is primed to provide years of faithful timekeeping. Indeed, if you love Cartier’s aesthetic but prefer to opt for a something slightly off the beaten path, this is an excellent way to do that in style!