Cartier presents the new Cartier Crash Tigrée, a reinterpretation of the iconic Masion watch born in the era of Swingin London and consecrated over the years as an expression of Cartier's creative savoir-faire.

A boundless creative territory that allows the Maison to explore the repertoire of know-how and formal research to constantly enrich one's stylistic vocabulary, animated by curiosity and open-mindedness.

The Cratier Crash was created in 1967 in the middle of the Swinging London era, created under the guidance of Jean-Jacques Cartier, great-grandson of the company's founder, this watch is an expression of the incredible energy of the city in recent years. Its asymmetrical dial has upset the aesthetic codes of watchmaking.

Before delving into the new Crash Tigrée, let's talk about how this watch with such "destructive" shapes is born

How was the Cartier Crash born?

While for many the design of the Crash was inspired by Salvador Dali's surrealist painting, The Persistence of Memory, others refer to the story that the design of the Crash originated from a Cartier Baignoire Allongée who melted from the fire of an accident. of car and had its deformed shape. The recent publication of Francesca Cartier Brickell's book, The Cartiers, seems to indicate that the birth of the Cartier Crash is the result of the work of Jean-Jacques Cartier and craftsman Rupert Emmerson, who played with Cartier's visual identity, lengthening it and folding it much more boldly than its predecessors.

The new Cariter Crash Tigrée

On the occasion of Watches & Wonders 2022, the artisans of House of Crafts they explored the potential of its dial and case and made it a ground for expression of Cartier's art crafts. The challenge was to establish how to distribute the volume of the Crash, to exploit the organic and taut character of the lines and evoke an animal presence. An abstract presence, in which the African fauna, loved by Cartier, is echoed.

To create this watch, the artisans resorted to various enamelling techniques, often unprecedented. The enamel thus adapts to creative needs: now opaque, now glossy, now used with shaded effects, but also worked on silver leaf and on engraving. All effects are legitimate and possible, thanks to extraordinary craftsmanship.

On the bezel, the stripes are made of enamel champleve. To create both contrast and luster, some stripes are interspersed with rows of set diamonds, while the winding crown is embellished with a diamond with an inverted pavilion, the jeweler's signature.

The dial realizes a compendium of the crafts used to create this watch: metal engraving, enamelling and setting. Initially engraved, the motifs of scales or rays are enameled on silver leaf. For the blue and green shades, the enamelling machine creates chromatic shades starting from cobalt oxide, for the blue, and from copper oxide, for the green.

The enamelling of this creation requires over 10 steps in the oven at a temperature between 750 ° C and 700 ° C, depending on the color you want to obtain. In a first phase, it involves working the underlying layers, and then moving on to the glazes visible on the surface. We gradually intervene according to the cooking temperatures, which range from the highest to the lowest: navy blue first, then it is the turn of turquoise and finally of translucent green.

The watch is made in a limited and numbered edition of 50 pieces.