The Best New Cartier Watches of 2022
There are advantages to being a globally-beloved brand with more than a century of heritage and legions of devoted fans, but there are disadvantages, too. While Cartier has a massive archive of hit designs to draw inspiration from, the bar for new creations is set incredibly high (how do you top the Tank — possibly the most successful watch design of all time?) For 2022, however, the French jeweller has once again upheld its place as a top-tier watch brand with a collection that combines the very best of old and new. Here are the ones you need to know about.
Cartier Masse Mystérieuse
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If there was one piece you’ve heard of from Cartier’s 2022 drop, it’s likely this one from Cartier’s Fine Watchmaking Manufacture, which is high in the running for the coolest new watch from any brand this year. This piece, which is highly limited to just 30 pieces and priced at well over $300,000, seems to defy the laws of physics with a movement housed entirely within the oscillating weight. Drawing on more than a century of Cartier’s “mystery clocks” as its inspiration, this piece reportedly took eight years to create and resulted in five new watchmaking patents. (Price on request)
Cartier Tank Must
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The Tank’s 21st-century renaissance continues this year with a handful of beautiful new editions of the Tank Louis Cartier, a slightly elongated version of the original 1917 Tank. The standouts for this year are from the Must line of entry-level pieces (“entry-level” in price, but classic Cartiers nonetheless). This trio features the classic lines of the Tank Louis Cartier accompanied by a modern monochrome black dial minus Cartier’s famous railway minute track and is available in steel with quartz movement or yellow gold manual wind. (From $3,800 (Price subject to change))
Cartier Santos-Dumont
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One of Cartier’s first watch designs — and the world’s first wristwatch — was the Santos, which Louis Cartier created for pioneering aviator Alberto Santos-Dumont in the early 1900s. Revived and updated in 2018, the Santos is now available in a wide variety of sizes and metals, including three new versions with coloured bezels and subtly stepped dials. Available in burgundy and platinum (limited to 150 pieces), beige and gold (limited to 250 pieces) or black and steel, the bezels are coated with a thin layer of lacquer which is smoothed and polished by hand for an unusual and luxurious finish. (From $7,450 (Price subject to change))
Cartier Pasha de Cartier
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The Pasha de Cartier watch debuted in 1985, but its story goes back much further, to the Pasha El Glaoui of Marrakesh, who was one of the Maison’s most loyal customers from the 1920s through the 1950s and an avid watch collector. The design isn’t based specifically on a piece from the Pasha’s collection — and also incorporates elements of a watertight watch with a protective grid produced in 1943 and kept in the Cartier Collection. For 2022 Cartier unveiled a range of new Pashas, including an all-gold version with the same distinctive protective grid (which is easily removable thanks to a complex system of four tiny clasps and a spring). ($23,600 (Price subject to change))
Cartier Privé Tank Chinoise
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Following the successes of the Crash, Tank Cintrée, Tonneau, Tank Asymétrique, and Cloche, the Tank Chinoise watch marks the sixth chapter of Cartier Privé, the brand’s most exclusive collection. Drawing inspiration from a century-old Tank made in 1920s Chinoiserie style, the Tank Chinoise pays tribute to the architecture of Chinese temples and the geometry of their porticos with its case composed of horizontal bars placed over vertical bars. The open-worked dial, meanwhile, reveals the workings of the movement, while evoking traditional Chinese windows with elements in black and red lacquer. (Price on request)
