Inspired by the automotive world, Cartier’s new line of Drive de Cartier watches for men has a strongly defined character with aesthetics that change with each model. 

Its case, in pink gold or steel, is fitted with a black, grey or white guilloché dial marked by Roman numerals punctuated with sword-shaped hands.

With the patterning of the guilloché dial resembling the design of a radiator grill, the domed crystal, counter at 6 o’clock and the winding crown shaped like a bolt, the motor car is an “indisputable presence”, according to the jewellery house.

The transparent case-back reveals the manufacture movement 1904 MC, available in two versions: hours, minutes, small seconds and date for the 1904-PS MC; and second time zone, day/night indicator, large date and small seconds for the 1904-FU MC.

The Drive de Cartier watch is also available in a ‘Fine Watchmaking’ version, with a flying tourbillon 9452 MC, certified “Poinçon de Genève”.

Created in 2010, the 1904 MC was among the first movements developed by Cartier. The care lavished on 1904 MC, with refined finishes such as the Côtes de Genève decoration on the bridges and the oscillating weight, or the polished screw-heads, attests to the high standards of quality to which Cartier holds its movements. This 11 ½ line calibre has been designed to maintain perfect chronometric stability, harnessing a double barrel system to ensure consistency of the mainspring torque over a long period. Fitted with a fine regulating system, the calibre was conceived to perfectly adjust its chronometry and guarantee that it runs with great precision. 

The 1904-FU MC, created in 2014, combines a retrograde second time zone display, a day/night indicator, a large date and small seconds, with the complications coordinated directly by the crown. This movement equips the small complication model of the Drive de Cartier watch.

Finally, the Drive de Cartier Flying Tourbillon watch, a ‘Fine Watchmaking’ timepiece fitted with the mechanical movement with manual winding 9452 MC. Poinçon de Genève certified, this watch is assembled and set in the Cartier ‘Fine Watchmaking’ workshops in the heart of Geneva. 

What has been achieved here is a watch created in accordance with the most prestigious of all watchmaking certifications, testifying to Cartier’s excellence in fine watchmaking, the house says.

The new line was launched at the 2016 Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie (SIHH) in Geneva, Switzerland, earlier this year. 

The steel versions cost between $6,250 and $6,500, depending on the dials, while the pink gold versions cost in $19,300 for the white dial and $19,600 for the black, according to reports.

The Drive de Cartier Flying Tourbillon, however, will cost closer to $90,000.