It’s nice to have the track, especially for reading elapsed seconds, but it would not have fit on the dial without as it does in the classic Calibre. The only detail of the case and dial that I have reservations about is the railroad minute track on the bezel. The 3 digit date window is symmetrically placed at 6 o’clock. Retained from the instantly iconic Calibre dial with this Chronograph is the large Roman XII and Romans hours on the upper hemisphere and luminous stick markers on the lower, a sort of whimsical variation on the “California” dial. The dial has a classic chronograph layout, though it is unusual in that the there are no running seconds in a subdial rather, the 30-minute counter is at 3 o’clock and the 12-hour counter is at 9 o’clock. I wrote recently about my appreciating of the Tank Louis Cartier:Īnd I have also like the 42 mm models that are part of the Rontonde collection, whether simple like this: Cartier seems to recognize this reality and has been concentrating resources into creating more masculine watches these past few years. What I have traditionally, and to be honest, selfishly, not liked about Cartier is that a majority of their production, outside of the exclusive and very expensive Fine Watchmaking collection, is geared toward female clientele.

I have long been impressed by Cartier’s ability to create a diversity of watch designs while still ensuring they all retain the Cartier “house style.” If you removed the brand name from the dial I’m confident that you would still be able to identify the watch as coming from Cartier, just as you could drop the needle on a random piece of Mozart’s mature music and identify it unmistakably as coming from him, regardless of it being opera, symphonic, concerto, or chamber music.

Cartier calibre chronograph watch