Cartier - 1904 MC : the chameleon calibre
No need to get bent out of shape. When Cartier need a new calibre, they only have to modify their multi-purpose tool. The manufacture-turned brand has designed one of the most flexible, smart movements ever made, one that was invented with deformation in mind, the 1904 MC calibre. After releasing a series of high complication movements, the brand launched a three-hand, self-winding calibre with date, one that's kind of affordable, and named it after the year Cartier designed their first wristwatch. From the get go, Cartier's first base-movement was designed to evolve in many shapes and forms. But in order to serve the needs of so large and diverse a brand, they needed a tool that could be bent to their will, literally. The brand is no stranger to this kind of stretching. Bear in mind that over 30 different Tank shapes have been created in a century...
Round or square, plain or skeletonised, with or without additional complications, so it became that the 1904 MC evolved to a total of nine variations. Beyond the original, automatic version, the most used and famous are Cartier iconic skeleton movements. Underneath the grid shaped like Roman numerals, a very visible expression of Cartier's core codes, lies a hand-wound, skeletonised version of the 1904 MC. Such a high-end variation is designated by a reference that begins with a 9, which denotes a Haute Horlogerie-type level of quality in Cartier's rulebook. By losing its rotor and other automatic winding components, movements like the 9611 MC have gained a third day of power reserve and mostly rectangular shapes.
And yet they still have some flexibility left in them. Indeed, Cartier has created two shapes based on these skeletons. The first one is the 9616 MC, found in the Tank Louis Cartier Squelette Saphir. The organs are all there, they're all the same. They've just been shuffled around to fit under a large C-shaped bridge, caught in the middle of two sheets of transparent sapphire crystal. Even crazier, the skeletonised 1904 MC has had a car accident, which resulted in the shaping of the 9618 MC. Found in the Crash Squelette, its outline fits perfectly inside that oddly deformed case.
Yet, the 1904 MC isn't only capable of shape transformations. It can also become more than a three hand movement. Like many base calibres, it is powerful and smart enough to carry a complication module on its back. Typically, perpetual or annual calendars are built that way and the Rotonde Quantieme Perpetuel is proof thereof. But where the 1904 MC shows it's got brains is when it integrates another complication. Indeed, the 1904-CH MC is a stand-alone chronograph, one whole single object. The same goes for the 1904-FU MC, which integrates a retrograde second timezone and a large date, all as one.
All these options and complications had been foreseen and planned from the beginning. So not only is the 1904 flexible and smart, it is also the result of incredible strategic vision. And that is a very rare thing in watchmaking.
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