Object Of Desire: Maillon De Cartier Timepiece

A lot of thought has gone into creating Cartier’s recently debuted Maillon de Cartier watch. Maillon is French for “link”, referencing the design’s most striking aspect: its intricate chain-link bracelet.

Each link is aligned on the bias at an angle of 32 degrees – not an easy task with the maison taking a year to fine-tune the arrangement to ensure flexibility, comfort and ease of wear. Add how the bracelet fuses seamlessly with the timepiece’s distinctive hexagonal case and what you have is an architectural feat.

While it adds to the French maison’s oeuvre of revolutionary watch shapes (think the Daliesque Crash or masculine Santos that reportedly got men swopping their pocket watches for wristwatches in the early 1900s), the Mallon doubles as a piece of statement jewellery.

As assertive as it is feminine, it comes in yellow, pink or white gold with various diamond settings including a limited-edition version with 580 brilliant-cut diamonds totalling 9.33 carats.

Guess you can say it’s one piece in which Cartier’s legacies in horology and jewellery intertwine.

This article first appeared in the August 2020 Home Edition of FEMALE.