If you know anything about Cartier, you will know for certain that round watches cannot fully dominate the show, and it is so in 2014. The Tank Louis Cartier Sapphire Skeleton demonstrates this with a powerful aesthetic display that confirms Cartier’s fondness for shapes, volumes and a little bit of mysterious magic. The reference, if a link to the past is to be drawn, is clearly to the famous Cartier mystery clocks, the first of which was made in 1912.

Like most skeletons, you can literally see right through calibre 9616 MC, but this very transparency conceals some essential truths. In fact, part of the main plate has been executed in sapphire crystal, resulting in the impression that the manual winding movement is simply suspended in the air. Achieving this result was more complicated than you might think, and Cartier has patent pending for this particular use of sapphire crystal.

Despite being skeletonised and looking quite airy, calibre 9616 puts out a lot of power, three days worth to be exact. This is in fact a standard feature of the 9600 movement series. Currently available only in 18K white gold (price on application), the 30x39mm watch is part of the regular collection.