Cartier Santos-Dumont XL gemstone mosaic watch with horse motif

The dial is formed by arranging a swarm of delicate tesserae made of precious stones cut into small cubes. Gem setters from Cartier used Earth jasper, Kalahari jasper, grey Madagascar jasper, chocolate obsidian, and pink opal to recreate a background for wonderful horse imagery. A bit larger, irregular-shaped tesserae are arranged into a horse design. The image of the horse is composed of pieces of Cacholong, or Kalmuck Agate, which is a milky white colored stone, a type of Opal. These larger tesserae are edged into metal piping, while the most pronounced details, such as the neck, the mane and the nose, are underlined in hand-engraved gold. This produces a bright warm-colored reflection that emanates between tesserae, making rich and luminous effect and wonderful interplay of blending colors.


Fine golden lining around the tesserae producing luminous reflection

Cartier Santos-Dumont XL with gemstone mosaic horse motif is crafted in white gold. The watch is powered by an in-house manually-wound mechanical movement caliber 430 MC. Because it takes no less than 120 hours of work per each of the dials in this series, the watch is offered in a very limited edition of only 40 timepieces without stones and only 10 of them set with baguette-cut diamonds.


The design is engraved into the metal before the pieces of cacholong are embedded into the cavities

• Case: 18-carat white gold
  
• Dial: 18-carat white gold with hand-engraved high-relief horse motif, gemstone mosaic and paintwork
  
• Crown: facetted, 18-carat white gold adorned with a facetted sapphire
  
• Strap: semi-matte brown alligator skin with double adjustable folding clasp in 18-carat white gold
  
• Water resistance: 30 metres
  
• Movement: manual-winding, calibre 430 MC

Author: Marina Milojevic
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