Cartier «Rotonde Mysterious Day & Night»

The Rotonde de Cartier watch lends its generous dial to two historic Cartier complications: the mysterious movement and the Day/Night indicator.

These two complications are part of Cartier’s watchmaking heritage. Both dating from 1912, the mysterious movement was created for the Model A mystery clock, while the day/night movement was part of the Comet clock (also known as the Planet clock).

Cartier now brings these two complications together for the frst time in Fine Watchmaking: the sun, driven from left to right by the mysterious movement, appears to levitate in the top half of the dial, before handing over to the moon. The sun and moon, two stylised heavenly bodies, in turn indicate the hours of the day and night when the retrograde minutes are displayed in the bottom half of the dial.

This airborne reading of the time is magnifed by the juxtaposition of the radiating guilloché and satin-brushed sunray fnish on the dial.