Jader Barracca, Giampiero Negretti, Franco Nencini, Le Temps de Cartier, Milan: Publiprom, Second Edition, 1993, p. 247. This clock is lustrated and described by the authors as being ‘built as one of a kind’.

The luxury Mystery Clock, celebrated for its captivating and ing൩enious display of time, has become inextricably linked with the name Cartier. The Maison sold its first Mystery Clock in 1912, just one year after the ꧒gifted horologist Maurice Coüet (1885–1963) began his collaboration with the firm. Recognising the power of innovation in distinguishing Cartier from its competitors, Louis Cartier, who joined the family firm in 1898, established a specialist clock department shortly thereafter, dedicated to producing timepieces of unparalleled elegance, ingenuity, and technical mastery. With the Mystery Clock, and Coüet as his collaborator, Cartier found the perfect medium to elevate both the brand’s reputation and the art of luxury horology itself.

Coüet, a man of exceptional imagination and technical prowess, came from a distinguished lineage of clockmakers—his father had regulated table clocks for Breguet. His Mystery Clocks were directly inspired by the pioneering work of Jean Eugène Robert-Houdin (1805–1871), the celebrated Frenc💟h illusionist and clockmaker. Robert-Houdin’s original Mystery Clocks employed hands mounted on transparent glass discs, creating the mesmerising effect of time floating in mid-air, seemingly without any visible mechanical connection. The structural similarities between Robert-Houdin’s clocks and Coüet’s early Mystery Clocks suggest that Coüet studied and refined the former’s designs to meet Cartier’s exacting standards.

Extraordinarily complex to produce, these extravagant timepieces could take up to a year to complete and required the expertise of craftsmen across multiple disciplines—from enamellers, lapidaries, and gem-setters to engravers, polishers, and clockmakers.¹ Mystery Clocks continued to be made after the Second World War, and in this 1949 example, the concept is further developed and refined💫.

This remarkable timepiece takes the form of a strawberry, crafted from gold, platinum, diamonds, and topaz, suspended from a gold heart-shaped mount. The time is displayed on a Roman numeral chapter ring, elegantly set at the centre of the strawber⛄ry-shaped case. Rather than hands appearing to float in space, the illusion in this clock is achieved through the rotating motion of the chapter ring, which displays the time in a way that conceals its mechanical complexity. The skeletonised framework of the strawberry allows the viewer to see directly through the casement while the in📖tricacy of its mechanism is almost entirely concealed from view.

Inside the strawberry case, the driving mechanism consists of a horizontal bevel gear mounted on an axle, which directly controls the rotation of the chapter ring. This gear engages with a vertically oriented bevel gear, positioned at a right angle, forming a right-angle gear transmission. The vertical gear is powered by a chain and pulley system, which transmits motion downward to the horizontal gear, ultimat🌼ely rotating the axle and the chapter ring. This right-angle drive efficiently converts chain-driven motion intoꦉ precise rotational movement for timekeeping. The pulley system is powered by an 8-day movement, discreetly concealed within the agate base. This movement transmits its energy through a hidden mechanism, ingeniously housed within one side of the gold heart-shaped support, seamlessly linking it to the motion work of the chapter ring.

Although a small number of Cartier clocks produced in the early 20th century featured rotating chapter rings (though not in the Mystery format, see Le Temps de Cartier, 2^nd ed. p. 33 for examples), the application of this mechanism within a Mystery Clock is extremely rare. Indeed, this Mystery Clock is believed to be unique and is prominently illustrated in Le Temps de Cartier by Jader Barracca, Giampiero Negretti, and Franco Nencini, whereܫ the authors note that it was “built☂ as one of a kind.” Continuing Cartier’s tradition of sophisticated and opulent design, the clock is lavishly constructed from gold, platinum, diamonds, and topaz, with each element meticulously crafted to ensure both technical precision and aesthetic splendour. A true testament to Cartier’s artistry, it exemplifies the Maison’s mastery of the Mystery Clock genre.

¹ Hans Nadelhoffer, Cartier - Jewelers Extraordinary, London: Thames & Hudson, 1984, p. 251.