With a historical past relationship way back to 1847, it’s laborious 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 had 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 software for Santos-Dumont, little did Louis Cartier know that it will turn 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 stream 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 amenities within the neighbouring Swiss Cantons kind 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, positioned within the canton of Fribourg, whereas Cartier’s newest applied sciences are examined in Couvet. Cartier’s Maison des Métiers d’Artwork — positioned inside an outdated renovated farm — is a stone’s throw from the La Chaux-de-Fonds facility.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 numerous purposeful our bodies corresponding to design, manufacturing, meeting and help had been housed beneath 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 expertise 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 numerous departments inside its steel and glass facade. Heavy industrial machines corresponding to CNC equipment are housed on the primary degree, whereas an environment-controlled cleanroom is house to the calibre meeting and high quality inspection groups. Different departments within the manufacture embody the restoration, high quality management, design, sharpening and meeting groups.
From Paper to Steel
The lifetime of a Cartier watch begins with an thought, most of the time ephemeral — simply misplaced — than concrete. And simply as an image paints a thousand phrases, there is no such thing as a higher solution to articulate an thought than with a sketch. Armed with concepts from the advertising and marketing workforce, the designers interpret and translate them accordingly via sketches from numerous 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 beneath 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 consumer orders — must 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 based mostly on technical dossiers. This documentation is a crucial a part of the manufacturing course of as — based mostly on the experience and expertise required — industrial processes are being correctly outlined and mapped out by the commercial 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 fascinating areas caught our consideration, spanning each conventional and forward-thinking methods. On the archaic finish of the spectrum lies the mineral crystal shaping workforce, which — in keeping with Cartier — is an nearly 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. Moderately than using machines and expertise 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 finished 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 answerable for fashioning bracelet hyperlinks from steel bars. As much as 9 bars might 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 finished all through manufacturing. An automatic four-step take a look at sees watches submerged in water and acid, and uncovered to magnetic waves and excessive temperatures to make sure they’re resistant to every aspect. 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 accountable 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 workforce employs numerous methods, from faithfully reproducing period-specific parts present in archival blueprints to devising progressive options to resolve sure conundrums.
The place Splendour and Goals 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. Inside the hallowed partitions are even older artisanal methods 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 methods are tailored and included into trendy executions that defy the standard codes of magnificence. Whereas there are various methods, they’re divided into three primary classes: the artwork of fireside, steel, and composition.
Enamelling — categorised beneath the artwork of fireside — is a method that wants no introduction. Nevertheless, Cartier’s mastery throughout numerous methods 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 kind 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 usually 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 occasions, complement different artisanal methods. The nuances of color are expertly captured via opaque, translucent or gradated enamelling on numerous 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 steel are methods that fall beneath the artwork of steel. The previous dates again to 4 BC, when the Etruscan civilisation popularised the ornamental method that concerned tiny beads lining jewelry surfaces. Gold wires are first heated earlier than tiny items are minimize into water-filled crucibles. The speedy cooling shapes the gold items into spheres, that are then sieved and sorted in keeping with dimension. Whereas soldering the beads to kind patterns is the primary software that involves thoughts, an progressive use of viscous liquid, sapphire dividers and gravity to kind the panther head define seen within the fascinating Révélation d’une Panthère is an illustration of the maison’s creativity.
Flamed steel — one of many division’s newer Métiers d’Artwork methods — 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 components 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 method is compounded in the direction of the later levels 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 last artwork of composition is maybe probably the most distinctive methods 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 lifelike 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 methods had been on the point of extinction at one level, there may be hope that these time capsules of yesterday will likely be stored secure and handed on for generations of tomorrow.
This text was first seen on Mens Folio Singapore.
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