Best Concept 2022: Cartier Masse Mystérieuse

It has been a phenomenal year for the watch world. To round off 2022, we are celebrating the hits, the wonders, the visionaries and all the people in watchmaking who have made it so memorable in our annual Revolution Awards and Power Lists.

Today we’re proud to award the Best Concept Award to the Cartier Masse Mystérieuse. 

Fine watchmaking, in broad strokes, is divided into two predominant segments — complication watches that, as the term suggests, feature additional mechanisms to complicate matters as a display of prowess, and precision watches that feature various at times complex scientific enhancements to better chronometry. But an equally admirable genre is where mechanics are manipulated to achieve a purely aesthetic goal, generating significant entertainment value.

Specifically, it is watchmaking as a form of conceptual art that characterizes Cartier’s Fine Watching collection which, over the past decade, has spawned a variety of watches based on the concept of Cartier’s mystery clocks, such as the Astrotourbillon, the Mysterious Double Tourbillon and the Astromysterieux. This year, Cartier introduced perhaps its most extraordinary and compelling development — the Masse Mystérieuse.

Nearly eight years in the making, the Masse Mystérieuse houses the entire movement in an oscillating rotor, which simultaneously winds the mainspring contained within. The movement appears to be mysteriously disconnected from the crown and its keyless works. But as with earlier mystery watches, the secret to all of this lies in sapphire disks with toothed rims — six in this case — that perform different functions. To maintain the perfect illusion, this invisible gearing is hidden beneath the chapter ring, while a differential is implemented in the motion works to ensure the hands remain unaffected by the rotation of the movement.

The beauty of this is such that even with all the curtains pulled back on this magic trick, the effect still amazes.