Of course Cartier recently offered an 8 days Tortue in the discontinued CPCP
collection, but there is no similar model in its current collection. Given the
long history of this model, Cartier should revive this in its high watchmaking
collection. The Cartier Santos Triple 100 was first launched in 2008 in a
limited edition of 20 pieces, cased in palladium. It featured three dials – in
white, diamond pave and a hand-engraved tiger – made possible by a patented
louvre system operated by the crown. Three-faced louvres made of solid white
gold with a triangular profile are rotated to show each of the dials. The
simplicity of the concept belies its complexity. A year later Cartier unveiled a
second jewelled Santos Triple 100 with an eagle on one of the dial faces, also
in a limited edition of 20 pieces. Like the tiger of the year replica
cartier roadster
, the eagle is hand-engraved and requires about 50
hours of work.
That year Cartier also presented a Santos Triple 100
skeleton, informally known within Cartier as the “Double 100”, in a limited
edition of 100 pieces. Unlike the Triple 100 that has three-faced louvres, the
Double 100 uses slats with a rectangular profile, much like those of a window.
Each face of the slats has one dial – white and black – hence the name Double
100. But the louvres can be also set such that the skeleton movement is visible,
giving it three distinct looks. The calibre used is the in-house, twin barrel
9611 MC with Roman numerals incorporated into the bridges and base plate to
striking effect. First seen in the Santos 100 Skeleton, the 9611 MC was designed
from the ground up as a skeleton movement, rather than being a skeletonised
version of existing calibre. Thus it is remarkably transparent and totally
different in feel from traditional skeletons, which were the intentions of
replica
breitling navitimer
, head of technical development at Cartier and
creation of the movement.
Shutter or louvre mechanisms on watches are not
new. Such wristwatches were first available in the 1920s, notably from Vacheron
Constantin, and were designed to protect the crystal from damage during sports,
much like the Cartier. And in the mid nineties VC created the Les Historiques
Jalousie which was inspired by the originals of the twenties. replica
breitling bentley 6. 75
currently offers the Reverso a Eclipse that
features a roller shutter above an enamel dial. But the Cartier Santos Triple
100 is notable for several reasons.
Simple as the idea is, it took nearly
three years to realise. The challenge was in creating a mechanism that would be
easy to operate but remain firm when jolted. Carole Forestier and her team
devised a solution of star-shaped wheels with tensioning springs to secure the
louvres. Each star-shaped wheel is held in place by a tensioning spring; the
springs are actually part of a single strip of steel that runs the length of the
dial. It is fabricated from a Durnico, a steel alloy with “high spring property”
according to the manufacturer. Each spring measures only 0. 6 mm wide – a human
hair is about 0. 1 mm wide. Yet the levers provide just enough tension to keep
the louvres in place while being flexible enough to allow rotation via the
crown. The tensioning springs also give the Triple 100 the right feel – definite
and reassuring, not mushy or stiff.