A Brief History of Timekeeping
Sylviana Hamdani | February 03, 2012

Running until Feb. 12, the first Cartier Art Exhibition in Singapore’s Marina Bay Sands shows visitors and watch lovers how the honored horologists have kept time in luxury over the years.

During a quiet evening in mid-December, the half-open lotus which houses the ArtScience Museum at Marina Bay Sands in Singapore shimmered as conspicuously as the opulent timepieces on display inside.

More than 300 guests were in attendance for the opening night of the first Cartier Time Art exhibition in Asia.

“Cartier has an amazing private collection,” said Bernard Fornas, president and chief executive of Cartier International. “Tonight, we’ve decided to make an exhibition that is only made of timepieces.”

The Time Art exhibition runs through Feb. 12. It follows an exhibition at the Museum Bellerive in Zurich between August and November.

The heritage collection features more than 1,400 pieces of antique jewelry, timepieces and decorative objects. One hundred fifty-nine antique clocks and watches in the collection are on display at the ArtScience Museum, together with 40 contemporary timepieces.

“We’re very excited that Cartier has recognised the ArtScience Museum, a work of art in itself, as the perfect venue to exhibit this extraordinary collection,” said George Tanasijevich, president and chief executive of Marina Bay Sands. “I’m sure that our guests will discover the rich language of shapes, designs and complications of these objects emphasized in Cartier’s high level of expertise.”

“Time itself is art and culture,” said Tokujin Yoshioka, who designed the Cartier Time Art exhibitions. “Therefore, the exhibi-tion is not only about fine watchmaking, but also about the history and social cultures represented in the timepieces.”

Yoshioka cleverly cloaked the corridors at the ArtScience Museum in complete darkness, with the illuminated window displays of the clocks and watches acting as beacons for visitors.

One of the earliest watches that Louis Francois Cartier, who founded the brand in 1847, sold at his workshop at 29 Rue Montorgueil in Paris was a Chatelaine watch in yellow gold, pink gold and pearls made in 1874, which was displayed at the exhibition.

In that era, men and women wore watches pinned to their clothing or belts. “They didn’t think of watches at that time as timepieces,” said Helen Anco, a museum guide. “They were jewellery to be attached to the clothing.”

The pieces were beautiful and intricate with elaborate enamel paintings and sheer golden chains and tassels.

“Cartier first invented the wristwatch in 1904,” Anco said. Brazilian aviator Alberto Santos Dumont asked Louis Cartier, the grandson of Louis Francois Cartier, to design a watch he could wear on his wrist so that he could tell the time without letting go of his plane’s controls.

Louis Cartier worked with his team and created what was later known as the Santos-Dumont watch. The watch, made of gold and platinum, boasted a rectangular platinum case and a sapphire cabochon on the crown of the watch. A black strap of fine leather was attached to the bezel to secure the watch on the wrist.

Unfortunately, the first Santos-Dumont watch was lost. In 1911, however, Cartier produced another Santos-Dumont wrist watch which he began selling to the public. A Santos-Dumont watch made in 1916 was on display at the exhibition.

Another variation of the wristwatch was developed in 1912. The Tortue watch, which resembled a tortoise as seen from above, was designed with a minute-repeater mechanism, which allowed the watch to tell the current hour and minute with different chimes at the push of a button.

“It’s one of the most challenging complications in a watch’s design,” Anco said. “It was introduced when there were no electric lights on the streets, so that people could still tell the time without actually reading their watches.”

For women, Cartier designed wristlets, or wristwatches that resembled bracelets with the watch’s face discreetly hidden in a secret compartment. Many men, however considered wristwatches to be for women.

“One man was quoted as saying, ‘I’d rather be seen wearing a skirt than a [wrist] watch,’ ” Anco said.

Seeing men’s reluctance, Cartier sought to create a strong, masculine design for its wristwatches. In 1917, he launched the Tank watch, inspired by the Renault military tanks in World War I, which had a rigid square shape made of platinum with sharp-edged flat vertical sidepieces attached to a black leather strap.

“It looks like a military tank seen from above,” the guide said.

Also displayed are clocks made of silver, gold, pearls, diamonds and other precious materials. “In the 1920s, for those who could afford them, beautiful clocks became favorite household items,” Anco said.

The Cartier Mystery Clocks may be the exhibition’s most enigmatic pieces.

Made in 1923, the Portique Mystery Clock is shaped like Japanese Shinto temple gates with a mythical Billiken figure sitting on the top. The clock, precariously hanging between two pillars, was made of a transparent rock crystal slab while the hands, made of platinum and rose-cut diamonds, appear to be floating at the center of the crystal.

“The hands are carried on crystal-disks with toothed edges,” Anco said.

There are 16 mystery clocks in the Cartier Heritage Collection at Cartier Maison in Switzerland; 12 of them are now on display in Singapore.

The exhibition also displays the watchmaker’s benches, replete with different watches and hundreds of their components.
“A simple watch consists of over 300 small components,” Anco said. “It takes a master watchmaker two full working days just to assemble them.”

Fine watchmaking processes are also depicted with beautiful holograms within the illuminated glass displays, but the most impressive scene in the exhibition was in the final room of the exhibition, which hinted at the future of timepieces.

In contrast to the other rooms, which were bare and totally dark, this room was bright and whitewashed. White plastic straws were piled on the right and left sides of the room, creating the illusion of walking among clouds.

The center of the room featured a large glass display with an oversized magnifying glass hanging at the middle. Through the magnifying glass, visitors can clearly see the sophisticated mechanisms of the Cartier ID One concept watch.

“No matter how advanced the movements of the watch are, there will be major issues of shock, gravity, magnetism and changes of temperature that affect their accuracy,” Anco said. “Cartier has looked at all those issues and created the ID One concept watch, which has overcome all these issues.”

The watch components are made of carbon crystals, which are hard, diamond-like materials completely unaffected by magnetism. The surface of the components are also coated with Amorphous Diamond-Like Carbon, which is wear-resistant and requires no lubrication at all. The case is made of an alloy of niobium and titanium, which is resistant to abrasions and shocks.

“We’re condemned in a way to evolve,” said Pierre Rainero, the director of image, style and heritage of Cartier International. “We evolve along with the ways and lives of the people to create beautiful and desirable objects that people want to live with.”

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