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Lot Essay
Made in a small exclusive limited edition, it is rare to find an example of this highly impressive and superbly styled Cartier Tortue XL Monopoussoir Tourbillon at auction. The present watch, offered in excellent condition.
With all the effortless elegance expected from a Cartier timepiece, the present watch channels the company’s 1920s heritage with its beautiful moiré Roman dial with ‘secret’ signature at 10 o’clock. The visible tourbillon is supported by a cleverly designed polished steel bridge in the form of the Cartier ‘C’. Viewed through the sapphire crystal caseback, the Cartier caliber 9431 MC movement represents an important first in watchmaking history by combining the complications of the ‘monopoussoir’ or ‘single-button’ chronograph with the tourbillon. The caliber was produced exclusively for Cartier by one of the most respected movement manufacturers in Switzerland, Renaud et Papi.
The monopoussoir is an ingenious chronograph mechanism whereby all the functions of the chronograph – start, stop and return-to-zero are controlled via a column wheel activated by pressing the winding crown the appropriate number of times. The monopoussoir chronograph system is not only practical but also allows the case design to be sleeker, its clean smooth lines uninterrupted by the two extra buttons of standard chronographs.
Both the ‘Tortue’ case shape and the single-button chronograph system as showcased by the present large-sized version have long been associated with Cartier and have an important place in the company’s history. The Tortue case was first introduced for time-only watches as early as 1912 and is now considered part of Cartier’s DNA. The first Tortue cased wristwatch with monopoussoir chronograph appeared in 1928.
With all the effortless elegance expected from a Cartier timepiece, the present watch channels the company’s 1920s heritage with its beautiful moiré Roman dial with ‘secret’ signature at 10 o’clock. The visible tourbillon is supported by a cleverly designed polished steel bridge in the form of the Cartier ‘C’. Viewed through the sapphire crystal caseback, the Cartier caliber 9431 MC movement represents an important first in watchmaking history by combining the complications of the ‘monopoussoir’ or ‘single-button’ chronograph with the tourbillon. The caliber was produced exclusively for Cartier by one of the most respected movement manufacturers in Switzerland, Renaud et Papi.
The monopoussoir is an ingenious chronograph mechanism whereby all the functions of the chronograph – start, stop and return-to-zero are controlled via a column wheel activated by pressing the winding crown the appropriate number of times. The monopoussoir chronograph system is not only practical but also allows the case design to be sleeker, its clean smooth lines uninterrupted by the two extra buttons of standard chronographs.
Both the ‘Tortue’ case shape and the single-button chronograph system as showcased by the present large-sized version have long been associated with Cartier and have an important place in the company’s history. The Tortue case was first introduced for time-only watches as early as 1912 and is now considered part of Cartier’s DNA. The first Tortue cased wristwatch with monopoussoir chronograph appeared in 1928.