The story goes that five years before Louis Cartier gave the world his initial design for the Cartier Tank, in 1912, he had put pen to paper to draw out a sensually charged elongated, oval and curved timepiece. The watch — as was the Santos Dumont, which he had designed for his friend and aviator, Alberto Santos-Dumont — was brought to life at the request of a solitary client, from Russia. This was a time in which Cartier was exceedingly open to the idea of unconventionally shaped wristwatches, in defiance perhaps, of a notion that having evolved from pocketwatches, all wristwatches should as well be, round.

The watchmaking universe will, therefore, be forever in Louis Cartier’s debt for having the courage to give us watches that are as audacious as the Santos Dumont and the Cintrée, just to name a few. You see, as awkward as the combination of the words elongated, oval and curved may sound, what made all of Cartier’s unconventional case shapes work, was an immense understanding for proportion and a superb skill for being able to balance volume and shape.

This unique creation of Louis Cartier’s from 1912, wasn’t something that was added immediately to the collection once the one-off piece had been delivered to the maison’s Russian patron. It was only in 1957 that Cartier designers took time to understand Louis Cartier’s 1912 design, and added to it — quite literally ­­— by dramatically elongating the case further to produce what we know today, as the Baignoire Allongée.

What we must appreciate here is that the Baignoire Allongée made no compromises in terms of its watchmaking. Its curved, elongated case was fitted with likewise a curved and elongated crystal that tapers toward its ends. Same applies to the caseback. Which, when you think about it, is a fascinating amount of trouble to go through in an age when many watchmakers and brands relied on the same case and component makers as a means to optimise production and costs.

Why recount the story of the Baignoire Allongée and its extraordinary finer points? Because Cartier may just have given the Baignoire Allongée its next leap of evolution, with the pièce unique, Baignoire mitten watch. The objet d’art is part of an effort that Cartier calls, Clash [Un]Limited, within which the maison allows itself little to no limits in matters of its creativity, innovation and expression of style.

The Clash [Un]Limited Baignoire mitten is, in essence, a 3D printed rose gold mesh formed into a mitten and decorated with nearly 1600 diamonds (watch and mesh). Nestled perfectly into said mitten, just where you would expect a wristwatch to sit, is exactly that — a wristwatch, a Baignoire Allongée, no less, in rose gold with a Clous De Paris bezel.

Cartier’s artisans meticulously assembled the complete art piece using thousands of tiny gold particles, welded together thanks to precision lasers and small pliers typically used in microsurgery. As simple as all of that sounds, you have to consider that Cartier had to keep wearability and fluidity top of mind when forming the mesh structure and, of course, not forgetting the Baignoire Allongée that has been seamlessly incorporated within. Bear in mind that they even had to consider how to hide the crown of the watch and even allow for an opening for the thumb, in a way that it wouldn’t cause a disruption to the supple form of the mitten. To end, just for those curious enough, the crown is on the underside of the timepiece.

Tech Specs

Reference: CRHPI01458

Movement: Quartz; hours and minutes display; crown to adjust time indication on back of watch

Mitten: 47 x 20.7mm in 18k rose gold; water resistant to 30m

More information: cartier.com