W&W 2023 Cartier Skeleton Watches

Emblematic of Cartier watchmaking, the aesthetic of skeleton watches is based on the notions of full and empty space. Stripped of a dial, the flawless balance between the movement—which appears as if suspended in mid-air in a sculptural frame—can be clearly admired. Reflecting the creative independence of Cartier watchmaking, these pieces boast exquisite craftmanship and style.

In 2023, the Cartier skeleton is turning over a new creative leaf with the Santos-Dumont watch and its latest 9629 MC automatic calibre, developed especially for this iconic shape.

In addition to this main launch, the Cartier skeleton has also enjoyed three other interpretations: a grand complications pocket watch framed by a crystal portico and an obsidian base, a Pasha de Cartier watch with grey lacquered bridges and lastly, a Santos de Cartier watch paved with baguette-cut diamonds.

Santos-Dumont Skeleton watch

Elevating the slim, understated shape of the iconic Santos-Dumont watch: this was the new challenge taken on by the Cartier Manufacture who, in 2023, is introducing a new, specially developed 9629 MC automatic skeleton calibre.

Staying true to the elegance of the original 1904 model, the legacy lives on. With a gold or steel case, visible screws, a beaded crown and blue cabochon, the latest Santos-Dumont watch—reinterpreted in 2019—features a skeleton movement, with each and every structural detail paying tribute to the aviator. Inventive and narrative, this movement includes a miniaturised functional oscillating weight in the shape of a replica of the Demoiselle, a trailblazing plane designed by the pilot in 1907. The symbol is made all the more powerful as it seems to soar over a globe.

This aesthetic and technical tribute to Alberto Santos-Dumont to is a feat of achievement, level with his own. He was a man who always aimed higher, designing more than 22 flying machines, accumulating patents for inventions and putting his life on the line during every one of his experimental flights. This new micro-rotor calibre took the Cartier Manufacture at La Chaux-de-Fonds almost two years to develop and is comprised of 212 components.

Made in rose gold and steel, the Santos-Dumont skeleton watch takes sophistication one step further with its limited edition in yellow gold and navy lacquer: all the details, the bezel and case are lacquered, including the skeleton bridges onto which the lacquer is applied delicately by hand.

Pasha Skeleton Watch

Distinctive hallmarks and an extraordinary design for an elegant rose gold watch whose 9624 MC skeleton movement in grey lacquer heightens its presence and accentuates its depth.

Santos Skeleton Watch

The iconic Santos watch offers up its refined design to the combined expertise of jewellery and watchmaking. This two-pronged approach leaves its mark on the latest version, which is paved with baguette-cut diamonds and features a 9611 MC skeleton movement with manual winding.

An exercise in graphic style, each element contributes to showcasing the original square shape of the watch, with baguette-cut diamond paving and the skeletonised Roman numerals in a white gold case. A harmony of white punctuated by the presence of a winding crown, set with a brilliant-cut diamond.

An exercise in graphic style, each element contributes to showcasing the original square shape of the watch, with baguette-cut diamond paving and the skeletonised Roman numerals in a white gold case. A harmony of white punctuated by the presence of a winding crown, set with a brilliant-cut diamond.

The immaculate style of the timeless Santos becomes more universal than ever before, with every aspect enhanced by openwork and radiance.

Grande Complication Skeleton Pocket Watch 

9506 MC Automatic Movement

Minute repeater, flying tourbillon and perpetual calendar: the Grande Complication skeleton pocket watch holds one of the most complex movements ever developed by the Cartier Manufacture. The 9506 MC automatic calibre brings together three of the most prestigious complications in fine watchmaking.

The skeletonised style of the 9506 MC calibre also allows for the beauty of the ensemble to be fully appreciated: the perpetual calendar’s counters, time, date, minutes, the flying tourbillon and finally, the minute repeater’s gongs and hammers. With a thickness of 6.77 mm and a diameter of 35 mm, this 9506 MC calibre stands out for its fineness and elegance, which honour the pure and classic aesthetic of a pocket watch.

An elegant pocket watch that Cartier presents inside a special frame, cut from rock crystal with black obsidian and white gold. This doubles its function and means it can be used as a small clock, when hung from a suspension ring designed for this purpose.

Through this watch, Cartier created a dialogue between jewellery and watchmaking savoir-faire. In a feat of collaboration, our goldsmith and enameller took turns to surround the case of the watch with a frieze of white gold gadroons and line the circumference with black enamel.

It continues the long tradition of pocket watches at Cartier, where the first pocket watches in the Maison’s archives date back to 1853. At this time, watchmaking techniques were making considerable progress. Achievements included reducing the dimensions, simplifying the mechanisms, and strengthening the resistance and reliability of small movements.

A patented skeleton, the product of a long Maison tradition

The Cartier skeleton is now part of the identity of the Maison. Instantly recognisable by its often-sculpted bridges in the form of Roman numerals, this patented design renders Cartier the sole watchmaker capable of creating a skeleton movement whose bridges have a time-telling function. Between 2009 and 2016, the workshops of the Cartier Manufacture at La Chaux-de-Fonds created 17 skeleton movements.

Skeleton and Complications 

After the 9611 MC calibre, Cartier created a series of skeleton movements with complications, rivalling the genius of the 9455 MC flying Tourbillon calibre created in 2010 with the 9461 MC Astrotourbillon calibre and the 9406 MC Grande Complication calibre in 2015.

That same year, the Cartier Privé collection highlighted the design of the Maison’s legendary watches. The Tank Cintrée and Tonneau watches were the first to be reinterpreted by the watchmaking studio, then notably the Crash watch and its 9618 MC calibre that fused with the uneven shape of the Crash watch.

Then, it was the Tank Asymétrique’s turn to enter the exclusive realm of this connoisseurs’ club. This time, the 9623 MC skeleton movement appeared in the centre of a bare structure, punctuated by the 12 and 6 cut into the top and bottom corners of the dial and the hour markers arranged in a sunray motif.

Since then, the collection has developed this movement around the rare aesthetics of the Cloche watch and the Tank Chinoise. The latter is distinguished by its rectangular shape and its bridges, which abandon Roman numerals to take are also coated in a colourful lacquer that adds a certain quality and depth. the shape of a traditional Chinese motif. They are also coated in a colourful lacquer that adds a certain quality and depth.

Harmony of signatures

In 2017, for the first time at Cartier, the skeleton and the mysterious movement— two of the Maison’s iconic fine watchmaking signatures—came together in the same watch. The Manufacture perpetuated the technical and aesthetic harmony of this exceptional match in 2022 with the development of an extremely complex piece: the Masse Mystérieuse watch, which again combined the mysterious movement and the skeleton.

A watch that turns to the rhythm of the new 9801 MC moving calibre, condensed into a semi-circle and transformed into a skeleton oscillating weight.

The new 9801 MC calibre ensures the effects of gravity do not affect the chronometer. The result of nearly eight years of work at the Cartier Manufacture, where it was designed, developed and assembled, a patent has now been filed for this movement. On the Masse Mystérieuse watch, the hands float in the space of the case, without being connected to any gears. Even better: the whole movement seems weightless. All components that receive energy from the movement, transmission and regulation are integrated in the rotor. The rotor itself is skeletonised to make this moving spectacle visible. In the centre, an ultra-sophisticated differential system borrowed from the automotive industry has been integrated into the movement to prevent the time display from being caught in the mass. A technical feat that comes to life at the slightest motion of the wearer and seamlessly displays the time to the rhythm of the hands in the void. On this piece—the most technical and complex piece ever developed by the Manufacture’s watchmakers—the mysterious rotor uses an innovative principle that ensures the balance wheel always remains in the same vertical position. For this to happen, the rotor rotates in both directions at an irregular speed.

Technical specifications

Cartier Santos-Dumont Skeleton Micro-Rotor Large 

Reference: CRWHSA0030

Case

• Material: Rose gold
• Dimensions: 31.00 mm
• Thickness: 8.00 mm
• Sapphire case back and crystal, bridges covered in blue lacquer.
• Water-resistant up to 3 bar (approx. 30 metres/100 feet)

Dial and hands

• Skeletonized dial 
• Polished blued-steel apple-shaped hands

Movement

• Calibre 9629 MC
• Automatic Mechanical Movement
• Dimensions: 23.2 mm
• Thickness: 4.4 mm
• Frequency: 25,200 vibrations/hour
• Power reserve approx. 44 hours

Functions/Indications

• Hours and minutes

Strap and buckle

• Burgundy alligator-skin strap and dark blue alligator-skin strap, rose gold 750 ardillon buckle.

MSRP: EUR 43'400

Technical specifications

Cartier Santos-Dumont Skeleton Micro-Rotor Large 

Reference: CRWHSA0031

Limited edition of 150 individually numbered pieces

Case

• Material: Yellow gold case with blue lacquer
• Dimensions: 31.00 mm
• Thickness: 8.00 mm
• Sapphire case back and crystal, bridges covered in blue lacquer.
• Water-resistant up to 3 bar (approx. 30 metres/100 feet)

Dial and hands

• Skeletonized dial 
• Polished blued-steel apple-shaped hands

Movement

• Calibre 9629 MC
• Automatic Mechanical Movement
• Dimensions: 23.2 mm
• Thickness: 4.4 mm
• Frequency: 25,200 vibrations/hour
• Power reserve approx. 44 hours

Functions/Indications

• Hours and minutes

Strap and buckle

• Blue alligator-skin strap and dark blue alligator-skin strap, yellow gold 750 ardillon buckle.

MSRP: EUR 44'700

Technical specifications

Cartier Santos-Dumont Skeleton Micro-Rotor Large 

Reference: CRWHSA0032

Case

• Material: Steel 
• Dimensions: 31.00 mm
• Thickness: 8.00 mm
• Sapphire case back and crystal, bridges covered in blue lacquer.
• Water-resistant up to 3 bar (approx. 30 metres/100 feet)

Dial and hands

• Skeletonized dial 
• Polished blued-steel apple-shaped hands

Movement

• Calibre 9629 MC
• Automatic Mechanical Movement
• Dimensions: 23.2 mm
• Thickness: 4.4 mm
• Frequency: 25,200 vibrations/hour
• Power reserve approx. 44 hours

Functions/Indications

• Hours and minutes

Strap and buckle

• Blue alligator-skin strap and dark blue alligator-skin strap, steel ardillon buckle.

MSRP: EUR 33'300

Technical specifications

Pasha de Cartier Skeleton

Reference: CRWHPA0018

Case

• Material: Rose gold 750 case, fluted crown cap and crown set with sapphires.
• Dimensions: 41.00 mm
• Thickness: 10.45 mm
• Sapphire case back and crystal, bridges covered in blue lacquer.
• Water-resistant up to 3 bar (approx. 30 metres/100 feet)

Dial and hands

• Skeletonized dial 
• Hours and minutes with skeletonised bridges forming Arabic numerals.
• Diamond-shaped hands.

Movement

• Calibre 9624 MC
• Automatic Mechanical Movement
• Diameter: 31.05 mm
• Thickness: 5.66 mm
• Frequency: 28,800 vibrations/hour
• Number of parts: 172 including 28 rubies
• Power reserve approx. 48 hours.

Functions/Indications

• Hours and minutes

Strap and buckle

• Black alligator-skin strap and dark grey alligator-skin strap, both equipped with the “QuickSwitch” interchangeable system
• Rose gold 750 folding buckle.

MSRP: EUR 57'000

Technical specifications

Rotonde de Cartier Grande Complication Skeleton pocket watch

Reference: CRHPI01469

Limited edition of 5 individually numbered pieces

Case

• Material: White gold 750 case
• Beaded crown set with a cabochon-cut sapphire
• Dimensions: 56.00 mm
• Thickness: 12.00 mm
• Water-resistant up to 3 bar (approx. 30 metres/100 feet)

Dial and hands

• White gold 750/1000 dial
• Hour marker and bezel covered in black lacquer
• Blued-steel apple-shaped hands

Movement

• Calibre 9506 MC
• Diameter: 35 mm
• Thickness: 6.77 mm
• Frequency: 21,600 vibrations/hour
• Power reserve approx. 50 hours.

Functions/Indications

• Hours and minutes
• Minute repeater
• Flying tourbillon
• Perpetual calendar
• Skeleton complications

Chain

• Gold 750/1000 chain
• Rock crystal and white gold 750/1000 portique. Obsidian base.

MSRP: Price on request

Technical specifications

Rotonde de Cartier Grande Complication Skeleton pocket watch

Reference: CRWHRO0071

Limited edition of 5 individually numbered pieces

Case

• Material: White gold 750/1000 case set with 263 baguette-cut diamonds totalling 21.24 carats
• White gold 750/1000 crown set with a 0.34-carat diamond
• Dimensions: 56.00 mm
• Thickness: 12.00 mm
• Water-resistant up to 3 bar (approx. 30 metres/100 feet)

Dial and hands

• White gold 750/1000 dial set with 111 baguette-cut diamonds totalling 6 carats
• Blued-steel apple-shaped hands

Movement

• Calibre 9506 MC
• Diameter: 35 mm
• Thickness: 6.77 mm
• Frequency: 21,600 vibrations/hour
• Power reserve approx. 50 hours

Functions/Indications

• Hours and minutes
• Minute repeater
• Flying tourbillon
• Perpetual calendar
• Skeleton complications

Chain

• Gold 750/1000 chain
• Rock crystal and white gold 750/1000 portique. Obsidian base.

MSRP: Price on request

For more information, please visit cartier.com