Cartier's Perplexing Masse Mystérieuse - Half Empty Or Half Full?

Half empty or half full? Cartier's perplexing Masse Mystérieuse is as much about revealing its secrets as it is about concealing them. By Celine Yap.

Cartier Masse Mystérieuse's new calibre 9801 MC is the result of eight years of research.

One of the first things a watch lover does upon encountering a never-before-seen haute horlogerie timepiece, is to flip it over to its back to admire the movement. With Cartier's new Masse Mystérieuse, however, the dial alone offers plenty and more to pore over. Although the first question that immediately pops to mind would undoubtedly be: But where's the rest of it? Rest assured, the watchmaker hasn't neglected to put in the other half of the movement; it simply isn't there. Whaaat?

As outrageous as this sounds, the Masse Mystérieuse really does have a movement that only takes up half the space within its round case. Packed ingeniously into what would otherwise be a perfectly ordinary oscillating weight, all 175 individual components of this movement are fully exposed, and together they rotate with every swing of the wrist. The other half is pure negative space and it calls to mind one of Cartier's most astounding and enigmatic signatures: the mystery clocks.