Cartier

SJX
[Purist]
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A look at the Cartier Tortue Perpetual Calendar

One of the most complicated watches in the Cartier Fine Watchmaking range (yes, even more complex than a tourbillon) is the Tortue Perpetual Calendar, launched at SIHH 2010.

Though this is a conventional perpetual calendar in terms of its construction, the watch is visually unusual. Aside from the turtle shaped case, this has a skeleton dial and retrograde day hand. My only quibble with this watch is its height; I wish it were marginally slimmer.

Somehow the Tortue Perpetual Calendar hasn't quite received the attention the other complications have gotten; in fact perpetual calendar watches in general not as highly regarded as they should be.

Perpetual calendars are arguably the most challenging complication in terms of assembly and adjustment, aside from striking watches. This is a view shared by a good number of watchmakers, including some well respected independents. The heavy marketing of the tourbillon in recent years has skewed the public's perception. But I foresee a gradual shift in the opinion in the coming years as buyers see the true value in them, and also because watchmakers will increasingly promote their perpetual calendar watches; this complication is in some ways the last of the unexploited functions.

Taken from my SIHH 2010 report:

"One of the strengths of the now defunct CPCP range was the large number of exotic form cases, ranging from the well known like the Tortue to the rare, for instance the Tank Obus. Cartier has revived the Tortue case shape for the first time in its new high watchmaking collection with the Tortue Perpetual Calendar. I am certain more case designs – Cartier has a hundred year’s worth of them – will be added to the high watchmaking collection.

The Tortue Perpetual Calendar is a chunky watch at 45.6 mm wide and 51 mm long, but that’s mitigated somewhat by its shape. Shapes like tortue and tonneau tend to look feminine if made small and slim, witness the Patek Gondolo ref. 5098, but Cartier managed to avoid that by giving the case the right proportions. And the open dial which exposes the levers of the perpetual calendar plate contrasts well with the sleek, curved case."

- SJX