Strap change, Cartier Ballon Bleu..

I have to say upfront that this is not the easiest strap change that I have done. It is the looping of the leather straps on the buckle that took a lot of time....

Please note this post is picture heavy..

This is my wife's Cartier Ballon Bleu. It comes fitted with  a  black alligator leather strap. She wanted the strap changed to a white alligator leather strap. 

The buckle, the cause of much 'pain' on my rather fat fingers...

The straps are held by the standard spring bars to the case. 

The new straps, white alligator leather straps. The width of the strap is 18mm and tapers down to 16mm. Both ends are 110 mm long. 

The straps are made in Austria. You can see the part number on the strap. The straps are very well made. 

Removing the original alligator strap begins...

Carefully unloop the strap from the buckle. Most important is to remember how the strap loops around the buckle. 

Remove the strap from the case. This is easy. :)

Transfer the spring bar to the new strap.

Attach the strap to the case. 

Remove the strap on the other side. 

Comparing the original and the new straps. Original is Swiss Made while the new one is Made in Austria. 

Attach the straps to the case. Check it is properly secured.

All done. 

These are the view of how the straps loop around the buckle. It folds back on itself. Careful not to damage the sides of the straps when looping it into the buckle. The fit is tight.

Cartier Exhibition in China

Cartier, together with the Palace Museum will host an exhibition Treasures Cartier - King of Jewelers, Jewelers of Kings. The exhibition will be held at the Meridian Gate Gallery of the Palace Museum, Beijing. The exhibition will begin on September 5th and run until November 22nd.

There will be about 350 items on display and the display will be divided into 4 sections. The first 2 sections will focus on jewels with European elements and the other 2 sections will feature jewels with Chinese elements. All the pieces will be from the Cartier Collection, from the founding of Cartier to creation in the 70s'.

Interesting exhibits includes the following:

Chimera Mystery Clock (1926)

Portique Mystery Clock (1923)

Photographs: Watchtime

Cartier Santos 100 Mysterieuse Watch

This is indeed an interesting watch from Cartier. It is the Cartier Santos 100 Mysterieuse Watch. Many knows about this version of the watch. It is made of Palladium and set with round diamonds. As I understand it, about 100 pieces were made and all pieces have been sold.

Why Mysterieuse? Well it has to do with the fact that the hour and minute hands appears to 'float' with the watch case. The hands are actually mounted on sapphire crystal discs. What makes this watch unique is that unlike other manufactures of Mysterieuse watch, the mechanical movement is built around the disc, thus making the dial see-thru. Other manufactures (Omega, Vacheron Constantin, Piaget and Montblanc) mount the movement under dial, thus the dial is not see-thru. I do know that Quinting builds their movement around the dial as well, but Quinting uses quartz movement.

However, last year Cartier launched another 40 pieces. This time, the watches were not adorned with diamonds. Other differences includes the size of the watch. The first watch comes in at 34 X 34 mm. The new non diamond version is 42 X 42 mm. The diamond version is fitted with a hand wound Manufacture 9600 cal. The non diamond version carries the hand wound Manufacture 81003S cal.

The shared basic specifications:

Hand wound Manufacture, 19 jewejs, 21,600 A/h

Power reserve: 38 hours

The non diamond version sells for about USD 70,000

The movement.

Photographs: Watch Critics (Mr. Alain Chung)