Cartier 2013 Métiers d’Art Crocodile(-dial).

Métiers d’Art watch collections are acclaimed for their beauty, their artistically challenging aesthetics and the degree of difficulty of their creation.  Not merely showcase "feathers in the cap" for watch brands, their presence and continued popularity also serves to preserve Haute Horlogerie traditions.  Those brands who are committed both financially and creatively to such collections are vanguards of the Applied Arts.

For their 2013 Métiers d’Art watch collection, Cartier will present a compendium of exquiteness.  I particularly like the Crocodile edition - this seductive little fellow, who has been created using the Cameo technique rises up from a blue relief dial, as if to affirm the significance of his reptilian family to Cartier and their luxury goods porfolio.

The dial is made from natural agate, painstakingly worked so that the crocodile's emergence from the waves, still glistening, is represented to stunning effect.  There is a waxiness and a translucence to agate which captures the essence and intensity of both the crocodile and his watery environment.

The Rotunde de Cartier case with its trimmed and polished bezel provides a perfect frame and the sharpness of its cabochon-set crown forms an affinity with the arrangement of the crocodile's spiky teeth - everything else is round and perfectly smooth.

Blued hands and the inclusion of a flying tourbillon with its signature "C" carriage ensures that the Crocodile Cameo is not the only compelling feature of this unique watch.

The Rotunde de Cartier Crocodile watch will be limited to 30 pieces and is powered by the manual winding Manufacture Calibre 9452 MC, Geneva Sealed inside and out.

View the other Cartier Métiers d’Art pieces at HH magazine website here.