Rotonde de Cartier Minute Repeater Flying Tourbillon

The well known watch manufacturer Cartier has unveiled their first minute repeater – the Rotonde de Cartier Minute Repeater Flying Tourbillion – in New York. Designed to be one of the main hot-points of the SIHH 2012 in Geneva, and designed and built over a 5-year period, the piece will surely have its historical spot among the famous rare and pricy minute repeaters.

The gadget comes with titanium or pink gold casing and a 9402 MC movement. There are also 47 jewels encased in it. The whole of 447 parts efficiently occupy the 45mm-diameter case, while the Geneva Seal is the indisputable proof of its great quality. The watch is incredibly light, while the sound produced by its strikes is extremely clear, thanks to the high-quality light materials the crafters used for the parts.

When the repeater is activated by the simple push of a button, the titanium case acts as a perfect resonance chamber for the beats, 68 dB, while the pink gold case only offers 63 dB. Another strong attribute of the watch is the 30-meter water resistance. The gadget comes in limited edition, both the titanium and pink gold versions coming in 50 pieces each.

There’s also a version with encased baguette diamonds. Cartier will only produce 20 pieces per year, with a price tag of $287,000 (€220,000) for the titanium version and $295,000 (€225,000) for the pink gold one.

[Cartier]