Lapidaries, setters and polishers...all skilled experts, have mastered the art of transforming a Cartier watch into a piece of jewellery. Assembling each link, gem and dial is a painstaking process due to the structural constraints of watchmaking. The earliest prototype of the wristwatch can be traced back to the one created for the Brazilian aviator Alberto Santos-Dumas in the early 1900s. In 1978, Cartier re-designed this watch in a daring combination of steel and gold for the Santos de Cartier collection.

Inspiration, has been the mother of invention, for the Maison. They were always ahead of their generation, in crafting beautiful timepieces that set the world ticking. 'Tutti Frutti', a style created by Cartier in the '30s involved a daring combination of sapphires, emeralds, rubies and diamonds set in a luxuriant frieze, bursting with colour. Even a Parisian zoo in Vincennes had set the tone for a tiger collection in the 1940s. Bejewelled animal objects of desire were sculpted out of a volcanic stone called obsidian on a rock crystal base. Maria Félix, the Latin firebrand actress, inspired La Doña, a watch famed for its unique design and masculine-feminine appeal.

Beauty lies in geometry and all's well with the world! So believe Cartier, when it comes to the construction of symmetrical-shaped watches, delicately set with diamonds, wild stones, tourmalines and black sapphires, carefully placed to highlight each curve. The art of the jeweller-watchmaker lies in his lightness of touch, to make a perfect object seem as if it were the most natural thing in the world.