Black Panther

From the darkness of the woods, this wild cat emerges

- Annabel Tan

At last year’s Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie de Genève (SIHH) in Geneva, Cartier wowed the crowd by playing with fire – literally. Using a rare technique, the dial of the beautifully crafted Ronde Louis Cartier XL was coloured by fire to create an incredibly detailed image of a panther.

This year, Cartier has introduced yet another new technique to their growing watchmaking repertoire: wood and gold leaf marquetry. A marquetry artist at Cartier’s Maison des Métiers d’Art in La-Chaux-de-Fonds layers wood veneers over a 24-carat gold leaf, and carefully sands or etches the surface to create different types of effects and details on the Ronde Louis Cartier. In order to get the rich, dark shades that bring out the face of the panther, a precious exotic wood called Macassar ebony is used. It takes the artist five days to achieve the final combination of gold, dark browns and bronze, which provide contrast to the panther’s two bright green peridot eyes. That’s not all – the 18K yellow gold case and buckle come set with brilliant-cut diamonds totalling 1.83 cts.

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