Historic Cartier Watches on Display in London

As U.S.-based watch enthusiasts are clearing their calendars for Patek Philippe’s upcoming Art of Watches Grand Exhibition, slated for July 13-23 in New York, many collectors in England are preparing to visit Cartier in Motion, an exhibition on Cartier and design, which opens this Thursday, May 25th to July 28th, 2017, at the Design Museum in London.

Curated by architect Norman Foster and co-curated by Design Museum director Deyan Sudjic, the expansive Cartier in Motion exhibit explores the creativity of Cartier watchmaking from a design perspective.

The 170 exhibits that will be on display are primarily pieces from the Cartier Collection, but also include loans from the Collection of the Monaco Princely Palace Collection, the Musée de l’Air et de l’Espace at Le Bourget airport and the Rockefeller Center. Many of the exhibits will be accompanied by descriptions and notes from previously unseen extracts from a scrapbook found in the Cartier Archives.

The exhibition explores six main themes: (1) The evolution of Paris and its influence on Cartier shapes; (2) Louis Cartier’s connections with Santos-Dumont and other pioneers of the age; (3) the birth of the modern wristwatch; (4) the everyday and sophisticated accessories designed to cater to a glamorous inter-war lifestyle; (5) the evolution of Cartier watch designs; (6) Cartier craftsmanship, with a focus on mystery clocks and skeleton movements.

Cartier explains that the idea for the exhibit came about after the Design Museum recently acquired a Cartier Santos wristwatch and a Cartier Tank wristwatch for its permanent exhibition. The concept of the exhibition was fine-tuned over the course of meetings in Paris, Geneva, the Manufacture in La-Chaux-de-Fonds, London and Milan. For more information see here.

Here are a few highlights from the exhibit: