SHAPING TIME

Cartier's "A Journey Through Time" exhibition in Singapore provides an illuminating look into the watchmaking heritage of a 170-year-old brand.

- DANIEL GOH

If you had told me that standing outside a nondescript emergency exit inside ION Orchard in Singapore, would eventually gain me access to an exhibition filled with the most incredible vintage Cartier timepieces, I wouldn't have believed you. Except, on a Monday morning sometime in January, I found myself in this exact situation. Singapore was the first market to feature "A Journey Through Time", a private exhibition that saw them transform the third floor of the Cartier boutique in Singapore, a floor that was normally only accessible from inside the boutique (hence the emergency exit), into a unique experience where a select few could get better acquainted with Cartier's historical watches.

The whole exhibition was inspired by Time Project, a series of powerful short performances by the actor Jake Gyllenhaal. You can still see it on YouTube, the project comprises of 12 mini-videos directed by Sølve Sundsbø exploring the nature of time. Going through the doors of the emergency exit, it was almost like walking onto the set of those videos, sans Mr Gyllenhaal of course, but it came complete with its own bench, like in the first chapter of Time Project. Next came a makeshift bar serving some time-inspired cocktails setting the mood before getting into the thick of things.

The experience was akin to their “Into The Wild” exhibition at Sentul Depot in late 2022 where each successive room brings its own mini experience for the guest. The next room however was by far the most important as it housed 23 of Cartier’s historic timepieces that together provided almost a snapshot of the brand’s timeline and their obsession with shapes that dates back to the time of Louis Cartier.