Messages: 2611 Location: East Coast, USA
Registered: November 2003
The Cartier ID One Concept Watch - Impressive Innovation from the House of Cartier >>>
Tue, 29 December 2009 14:59
Dear Friends,
Last month I was one of a number of journalists invited by Cartier to their manufacturing facility in La Chaux de Fonds, Switzerland for the official launch of the ID One Concept Watch.
As some of you probably know, 2009, the 162nd anniversary of Cartier, was a landmark year for the brand. As seen at SIHH 2009, for the first time in its history, Cartier released a series of innovative watches, including the Santos 100 Skeleton and the Rotonde de Cartier Central Chronograph, that were designed, manufactured, finished, and assembled 100% in-house. Cartier made its intentions clear: they've evolved into a true manufacture with the objective of becoming a serious contender in the world of high horology.
Over the course of five days, journalists from around the world were invited for the ID One launch. Illustrating the importance of the ID One to Cartier - the product of over five years of research and development - this media event, with so many journalists invited to the manufacture, was another first for the brand.
Unfortunately, we were not allowed to bring cameras, so this report includes only stock photos provided by Cartier...all photos copyright Cartier.
The Manufacture
Before introducing the IDOne, the Cartier team walked us through a brief background of their manufacturing facilities and capabilities. We were also given tours of the manufacture, with informative presentations given by Cartier engineers and watchmakers at each stop, demonstrating how they've systematically built up their capability to develop such an innovative watch entirely in-house.
Cartier's watch division had a presence in La Chaux de Fonds since the 1950s, and continued to grow and expand by buying up stakes in their suppliers. Today, they've integrated their facilities into one state-of-the-art, 40,000 square-meter factory with approximately 1200 employees. To optimize their design process, Cartier integrated and co-located seven design and development teams into a "Think Tank" wing spanning four floors. As the illustration shows below, prior to this co-location, scattered teams had to traverse up to 170 km to realize a concept versus a far more nimble 300 m in the optimized approach.
The ID One
Similar to concept cars in the auto world, the ID One is a concept watch - unique and not for sale. Made 100% by Cartier, its principal innovations are:
* A movement requiring no adjustment - a world's first
* A highly accurate escapement, to within 2 seconds per day, that will retain its high accuracy for the entire life of the movement
* A movement requiring no lubrication
These innovations were enabled by the use of advanced materials, including carbon crystal, Amorphous Diamond-Like Carbon (ADLC), and Zerodur.
For most mechanical watches, up to 50% of their assembly time is devoted to regulation. This involves labor-intensive work on the elements of a watch's escapement, including balancing and poising the balance wheel by adjusting screws or removing metal, adjusting the hairspring to the right length, and positioning the pallet jewels of the anchor to properly engage the escape wheel. Once sold to the customer, the watch will remain regulated for a period of time, but will inevitably require adjustment once the oils age, or when subjected to shocks or strong magnetic fields.
The ID One completely eliminates the need for *any* adjustment, from assembly through the life of the watch. The use of advanced materials allows for extremely precise parts that are near perfectly matched and identical when they're made.
The balance wheel, pallet fork, and escape wheel, as well as the bridges to which they're mounted, are made of carbon crystal nanotechnology - an extremely hard, temperature and magnetic-field insensitive, and wear-resistant material with a low friction coefficient eliminating the need for lubrication.
A conventional anchor/escape wheel with pallet jewels shown on the left. ID One's anchor escape wheel on the right - no pallet jewels, lubrication, or adjustment necessary.
The Cartier ID One balance wheel - made of carbon crystal.
Equally innovative is Cartier's use of a glass-ceramic composite material called Zerodur for the ID One's hairspring. Used in precision lenses and mirrors of telescopes, Cartier adapted it with their own proprietary process for use as a hairspring. It's four times lighter than a conventional hairspring, and, through the use of deep reactive ion etching (DRIE) technology, is as concentric as possible in all states - minimizing isochronism errors without the need for an overcool.
Combined with the carbon crystal balance and pallet fork, the resulting long-term accuracy averages an impressive +2 seconds/day across all positions.
A conventional hairspring on the left. ID One's Zerodur hairspring on the right - monoblock in construction with no elements that need adjustment.
The escapement is housed within a carbon crystal cage mounted to the movement using titanium rods (lighter and more elastic than steel) on polymer gaskets, or "silent blocks", making the entire sub-system highly shock resistant and insensitive to magnetism.
The gears, bridges, and rotor of the movement are all coated in ADLC - a hard, strong, and slick coating with properties very similar to diamond. A self-lubricating material, it enables the entire movement of the ID One to require no lubrication over its lifetime.
ADLC-coated rotor made of tungsten carbide - shaped like Batman's wings with an opening at the bottom to allow viewing of the escapement
The ID One's movement is fitted inside a 46 mm Ballon Bleu case made of niobium-titanium alloy, a corrosion-free, shock-absorbing, and highly scratch resistant alloy used in the medical and aerospace fields.
Closing Thoughts
The ID One is an extraordinarily innovative watch. Creating a mechanical watch never needing regulation, servicing, or lubrication while maintaining exceptional accuracy over its entire lifetime is a remarkable achievement.
Many of us were disappointed Cartier decided to not offer this watch for sale, instead keeping it for their museum. This was a carefully conceived and magnificently executed concept, and I hope to see an affordable, commercial version of the ID One offered to collectors in the near future.
Some minor criticisms:
* The watch, at 46 mm is too large for my taste.
* The movement lacked fine finishing details like anglaged bridges. When asked why, the response was that the watch is a prototype and would be finished properly if sold.
The visit itself - meeting the talented yet humble Cartier watchmakers and staff and seeing first hand their impressive manufacturing capability - was eye-opening. As a long-time fan of vintage Cartier watches, with some exceptions, I've pretty much ignored Cartier's modern offerings. They've built up an incredible skill base, and combined with their unmatched aesthetic designs and rich history, Cartier is poised for an exciting future. It's clear that Cartier is intensely focused on innovation and quality - and I look very forward to seeing what they come up with next.
- Paul Boutros