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SIHH 2018 is just months away, but we are already hearing about some of the new watches that will be released. Today, we have a pair of fake Cartier Rotonde De Cartier Mysterious watches – the Rotonde de Cartier Mysterious Day & Night and the Rotonde de Cartier Skeleton Mysterious Double Tourbillon.

The idea for these copy Cartier Mysterious Watches actually comes from the Mystery Clocks that Cartier made way back in the early 20th century. These clocks were notable because [SPOILER ALERT] their hands were fixed onto clear discs driven by gears just out of view, creating the impression that they were floating on the dial. This iconic look has been adapted for a number of Cartier’s watches and they make for interesting viewing.

The idea for these Mysterious Watches actually comes from the Mystery Clocks that Cartier made way back in the early 20th century. These clocks were notable because [SPOILER ALERT] their hands were fixed onto clear discs driven by gears just out of view, creating the impression that they were floating on the dial. This iconic look has been adapted for a number of Cartier’s watches and they make for interesting viewing.

The Rotonde de Cartier Mysterious Day & Night is available in a 40mm 18k pink gold or white gold case. Cartier fans will be pleased to know it also comes with the brand’s signature blue sapphire cabochon crown. Water resistance is rated at 30m.

The Cartier replica dial is divided into two halves. The top half features a day & night complication and also shows the hours in the form of a 12-hour scale that reads from six to six. In the day, a sun will appear on the dial and make its way from left to right. The hours are read simply by looking at the position of the sun in relation to the 12-hour scale. When it is night, a moon will appear and likewise will make its 12-hour journey from left to right. The bottom half of the dial features a radiating guilloché pattern in the center and a retrograde minutes display.

The Rotonde de Cartier Mysterious Day & Night is powered by the in-house hand-wound Caliber 9982 MC, which is visible through the sapphire display caseback. Made out of 174 components, it beats at 4Hz and has a power reserve of at least 48 hours.

I’ve always had a major soft spot for Cartier replica watches, especially high-end ones. The particular blend of technique, design, and a traditionally Parisian take on luxury makes them feel both conservative and full of personality. The Rotonde de Cartier Mysterious Hour Skeleton is a good example of what to look for when you want a Cartier that is much fancier than the ones most people have, but not so exotic as to make it challenging to wear on a regular basis.

Cartier recently announced that their Haute Horlogerie division would significantly slow down production – as I understand it will focus instead on more practical, accessible (i.e. simple and less complicated) high-end watches. Exotic tourbillons and highly technical and original movements which the brand has received many accolades for will be increasingly uncommon as the brand transitions to mostly service existing watches and producing a smaller number of very exclusive watches that I believe will focus more on decoration than a novel movement or mechanism.

That leads me to believe that for the most part, outside of “piece unique” creations for special customers, watches like the Rotonde de Cartier Mysterious Hour Skeleton might very well represent the top-of-the-line products Cartier makes for men. The watch is actually a combination of three existing items at Cartier, and that includes the Rotonde-style case, “mysterious” movement which has the hour and minute hands on a transparent plane, and on top of that, skeletonization of the in-house made caliber 9981 (which then becomes the caliber 9983) manually wound movement.

We’ve substantially seen all this before, and this watch more or less represents Cartier fake wanting to make the most out of its movements by offering them in a variety of cases. For instance, if you love the Mysterious Hour Skeleton but prefer the Cartier Cle case, they have a watch for you in the Cle de Cartier Mysterious Hour watch. The “non-Skeleton” version of the Rotonde de Cartier Mysterious Hour Skeleton watch was actually the first model to debut this style of “mystery dial movement” in 2013 .

Such designs have a long history going back to early 20th century table clocks produced by Cartier. At the time, it was en vogue for some brands (Cartier included) to produce mystery dial clocks. Many of these Art Deco style creations celebrated the intriguing optical illusion created when the hands were not mounted to the dial via a stem as is the case in a traditional watch, but rather mounted on a transparent plate, which itself features hidden gearing used to move it around the dial.

Skeletonized mystery Cartier copy watches are ironic since the skeletonization part sort of “ruins” the mystery. I’ve not seen anyone comment on this, but it wouldn’t stop me from having an otherwise enjoyable experience with a product such as this. In fact, if you liked the original Mystery Hour watch but wanted to “see even more,” then this Skeleton version might be right for you. Note that the privilege of having a skeletonized version of the Mystery complication watch will cost about $15,000 USD more than the non-skeleton model.

New offering of Cartier

Here at us tend to focus on the simpler end of Cartier’s offerings, classic beauties like the Tank or the Drive Extra Flat. But there’s another side to the famous jewellery maison’s watch offerings that’s, well, exceptionally complex. The Rotonde de Cartier Minute Repeater Mysterious Double Tourbillon is one such watch. If you didn’t glean that fact from the impressively wordy model name, take one look at this skeletonised, 45mm monster and you’ll immediately realise that we’re not talking about your run-of-the-mill Tank.

No, this watch, or – more accurately – the Calibre 9407MC inside, is one of the most confident expressions of Cartier’s horological ability we’ve seen in some time, with 448 individual parts, finished to a level sufficient to earn it the Geneva Seal, and a particularly demanding package of complications. The most visible is the ‘mysterious’ double tourbillon, which sees the whirring 60-second tourbillon rotate around the transparent sapphire aperture every five minutes. On its own this mysterious display, something of a trademark for the brand, would be impressive enough, but Cartier is determined to impress your ears as well as your eyes, as they’ve also managed to fit a minute repeater into a movement that’s 39.3mm wide and 4.7mm thick (without the tourbillon). The resonance of the repeater complication is amplified, thanks to the titanium case, and Cartier has chosen a button at five to activate it, rather than the more traditional slide. There’s also three-and-a-half days of power reserve.

All in a small box

For me though, the real feat of this watch is how Cartier replica watches have managed to cram so much into a comparatively small case, especially given the negative space occupied by the mysterious tourbillon. It’s also quite a modern look for the brand, with the titanium case, suede-like alligator strap and black rhodium-finished movement components. High horology, Cartier style.