The circus comes to town — with a whole lot of bling

There’s a very nice legend about how the panda got its unusual black markings. The story goes that a young shepherdess took into her flock a white, bear-like cub, and one day when she was trying to save the cub from a snow leopard, the brave girl was killed. The panda cub and its friends were so saddened by her death that they dipped their paws into ashes, rubbed their eyes and hugged each other to console themselves, thus the black markings on their pristine white fur.

The panda, which has long held the world’s fascination for its singular looks, is one of the featured animals in Cartier’s new collection of watches — this time, though, in a happy, whimsical mood. The theme is “circus” since Cartier plans to go from one continent to another in the next couple of years for this line of watches.  

So, yes, it’s about time the circus rolled into town and with it come the world’s most precious stones and playful designs: an elephant, a panda and a tiger — literally the new faces of luxury brand House of Cartier as it launched its Cartier Libre collection at the 18th Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie (SIHH) in Geneva, Switzerland, last week.

SIHH is the world’s most exclusive luxury watch fair, gathering 16 of the world’s premium houses, and inviting buyers and media from around the world to see for the first time new products and trends for the year. Held at Geneva’s Palexpo, around 13,000 visitors were treated to a visual feast. The 24,000-square-meter exhibition space itself was designed like an elegant watch store with contemporary lines and decor, and each brand having its own wing to display its watches in a variety of ways.

Cartier’s wing was a study in elegance with its trademark color red and script dominating the reception area and glass stands showcasing the new watches. One meeting room, however, was designed with a jungle theme with murals depicting the three animals from its Le Cirque Animaler de Cartier line and also the animals that have been featured in the brand’s 161-year history.

When the French brand decided to celebrate the 2008 Olympics, it turned to Asia for its animals and thus was born Le Cirque Animaler de Cartier line. The three new watches bring on the bling that Cartier — known as the “king of jewelers” and “jeweler to the kings” — is famous for. Price tag: Before taxes, it’s 100,000 euros each  or around P6.5 million.

Héléne Poulit-Duquesne, director for marketing development in watches, explains that the French house’s fascination for animals is historical. “The Cartier brothers (Louis, Pierre and Jacques) traveled a lot to Asia and Africa. They were pioneers in those days and they came back from these travels with plenty of animals in their heads.”

The animal themes for these limited-edition watches (only 50 will be produced) will continue in the next couple of years. For Cartier’s 2009 line, it’s the animals of the Americas (an eagle, a raccoon and a crocodile) to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Cartier’s New York store on Fifth Avenue, and in 2010, it’s going to be the animals of Africa.

“Personally, I love the circus. It’s a whole world in itself because it’s a moving world, it goes from one city to another. It’s the same with us, we move from one place to another and play with the animals.”

The Panda timepiece shows the animal holding a black enamel disc on its paws and the watch face is embossed with bamboo stalks and eucalyptus leaves in enamel. The panda itself is in 18-carat, rhodium-plated white gold set with round diamonds, black sapphires, and emeralds for the eyes.

The Elephant watch shows the elephant balancing atop a ball of pink gold covered in sparkling, star-set diamonds. It is outlined in white gold and paved with diamonds and the pink-gold dial is decorated with a shimmering hint of diamonds. 

The Tiger, long a theme in Cartier jewelry, is shown curled around a sun-like dial in yellow gold that is encircled with diamonds. Though the posture appears ready to pounce, the tiger is depicted as a friendly creature with its emerald eyes sparkling and its body covered in yellow gold and yellow diamonds.

All three watches feature a dark-gray brushed canvas strap with an ardillon buckle in 18 carat.

Héléne says it took Cartier’s creative, technical and development teams a year and a half to go from concept to final product. “First we give the brief to the creative people. We say to them we need this type of product at this type of price and level. Then they do the drawings and we select them. All goes through a validation process with Bernard Fornas, Cartier president and CEO. From one drawing you can have hundreds of 3D mock-ups. This stage is crucial because from drawing to 3D you can lose a project.”

Héléne relates that the teams spent a lot of time discussing how the animals would look. Would the panda be playing with the bamboo stalks, would the elephant be on top of the balloon, would the tiger look ferocious? “It’s fun, I love that stage of the creative process.”

The Three Faces Of Cartier

Then there is the groundbreaking Santos Triple 100. This watch ingeniously combines three watches in one. With one turn of the stem, you have a dial with the classic Cartier Roman numerals. Turn it again and the face is covered with diamonds and black sapphires, and then again you get the hand-engraved image of a tiger (which takes 40 hours for a craftsman to engrave). Price tag: 200,000 euros or P13 million before taxes.

Héléne says that when the pieces are limited, the house usually allocates the number of watches to be given to each country, but in this case, since only 20 pieces are being made they’re going directly to the client, meaning only those countries with a ready client will get its allocation.  

Though she wears a Ballon Bleu de Cartier, Héléne says the Santos Triple 100 is also a favorite watch “just because it was the most fun thing to create” and that it carries the Cartier DNA — that mix of highly technical and aesthetic flair. “It’s the best example of what Cartier can do.”

“There are two different types of creative processes,” she says. “For the Santos, it’s the kind of project that just goes fast (snaps her fingers). You have an idea, you have a meeting, you go to Switzerland, ask the technical people if they can do it. ‘Can you engrave a tiger?’ ‘Why a tiger?’ ‘Well, why not a tiger?’ It’s very spontaneous and because we’re doing only 20 pieces, it doesn’t have as much pressure. It’s an experiment, it’s fun to do, people gather around the idea and make it happen quickly.”

“It’s very different working on the Ballon Bleu where the project is born to be a star. It has to be a bestseller, there’s a huge amount of pressure that comes with it. It’s a very long process internally even. It’s difficult, it’s like carrying a baby — for two years!”

The new incarnation of the Ballon Bleu de Cartier for women comes in leather straps in orange, purple and pink. It’s sporty, very elegant and feminine with the beautiful winding crown that orbits the dial and the 3 o’clock side looking distorted, almost melted. The dial is bordered by diamonds set in either a single row or two. 

Héléne says that coming up with the new watches for SIHH 2008 highlighted the team spirit that is at Cartier. “We decided five years ago that each week we would meet with the creative and development people. We know each other very well, we are very supportive and respect what each department brings. Sometimes in a meeting we are shouting, then after that we go have lunch and everything is fine. Even if we fight, we know the best products come from the best fights. 

Who’s Buying?

Any fan of Cartier loves the classic elegance of the watch with its signature Roman numerals. And then there is bling heritage of the French house.

“We have never left our DNA. We bring a fun touch to the watchmaking business, which is a little austere and sad. If you look at watches, they are very technical, everything is round and boring. It’s a kind of a very Swiss world. With our French and jewelry touch, we bring something in terms of design flair and vision.”

So, who’s buying what? Where is the luxury market moving toward? “Middle East and Russia are very bling-bling,” says Héléne. “In Mainland China, the trend is very classic watches for the time being, like in Beijing the watches doing very well are the ones with leather straps. For the European clientele, it’s very quiet.” 

When we asked Héléne who the new royalty are, she qualifies that “the royals are still the royals and Cartier still works with the royal families of Europe, the Middle East and Asia. We still have that type of VVIP clientele, the very very rich people.”

But, yes, Cartier does serve different types of people — businessmen, bankers, oil magnates, new and old families, professionals in very good companies, athletes, new millionaires who have succeeded in business and are very young, unlike in the old times.

“They are the very rich people in the world; they have no single nationality because they travel all over.”

Last week, it seemed that time slowed down for all the luxury aspirations of the world to center in the quiet, timeless city of Geneva.

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In the Philippines, Cartier is exclusively distributed by Stores Specialists Inc. and available at Rustan’s Makati, Shangri-La Plaza and Cebu. For inquiries, call 819-5695 (Makati), 631-7997 (Shangri-La).