Cartier Rotonde 18K White Gold Watch Review | SwissWatchExpo

Fresh from the showcase here at SwissWatchExpo,  
we just recently received one of my favorite 
Cartiers that I’ve ever seen. And I think  
this is a great example of a watch for 
perhaps a non-traditional fan of Cartier  
brand watches in the first place. So let’s 
find out what’s so great about it right now.
Today I’m showing you one of, many of Cartier 
Rotonde that we’ve received in the past.  
This is far and away my favorite Cartier 
watch for the simple reason that there  
is so much variety in it. They have 
a ton of different sort of models,  
layouts, complications, and looks. And of 
course, I think it is a great modern looking  
timepiece for someone who is not a fan of a very 
traditional type of dress watches. So that means  
kind of Cartier’s bread and butter. Doesn’t 
really excite me the way it does some people,  
but the Rotonde is a clear exception to that 
rule and I’m going to show you why right now.
But first to get in a little bit of history on 
the Rotonde Cartier actually introduced this  
model in 2006. Now, around this time, you could 
say I think this is sort of when watches started  
getting more modern in terms of their sizing, 
people

started wearing much larger watches.  
And of course that left Cartier in an unusual 
situation because they are known for their very  
small traditional dress watches such as 
the Tank. And this goes for both the men  
and women’s line. But especially the style 
started going a bit more sportier, they did  
release some more sporty or models that they 
have since discontinued around this era.  
And at the same time also introduced the Rotonde, 
which is a much larger watch, but still sort of  
keeping in the tradition of Cartier and it is 
still very much an iconic type of Cartier design.
They didn’t stray too much from what makes the 
brand what it is. And that’s what I love. They  
didn’t give up a lot of their identity 
by making a more modern dress watch,  
but they still made it look absolutely 
incredible. And unlike really a lot of  
other watches that Cartier has made in the past. 
So let’s go ahead and get into it. The first thing  
you’ll notice is the size. It’s probably a lot 
larger than some other Cartiers you’ve seen.  
This is a 42 millimeter case and the case is 
in white gold. This is one thing that’s going  
to set it apart from the Ronde Solo. The Ronde 
Solo was a steel watch or predominantly a steel  
watch and sort of their entry-level model. 
The Rotonde is anything but that this is  
probably the most complicated model they have 
made, not just this one, but they come — this  
model comes in a variety of different dial layouts 
at different complications in movements — a flying  
tourbillon skeleton dials, perpetual calendars 
and things of the like — that’s not what this  
particular watch does, but there’s one of 
the reasons why I love the Rotonde and why  
fans of the top echelon of European watchmaking 
should be fans of it too, because this is  
when Cartier really flexes their muscles in 
terms of what they can do with a timepiece.
This particular watch is gorgeous, and it’s 
got some of my favorite type of dial layouts  
and complications that you can see. Mainly the 
first thing you notice is an incredible eight  
day power reserve. So I both love that this 
movement can power the watch for eight days  
and that they also do have the indicator on the 
dial. It’s one of my favorite things. It’s just  
so great that you’re able to see exactly how 
much power your watch has. It’s kind of one of  
the things that separates this from so many other 
watches. And I think it’s just really convenient  
to have, especially if you’re someone who collects 
a lot of watches or has a lot of watches that you  
possibly alternate between wearing, which I 
imagine the owner of this time piece would  
be that type of person. And if that’s you, 
then you should be listening to this part.
Another one of my favorite things — this might 
not be everyone’s cup of tea, but it does have  
an oversized double date window here at seven 
o’clock. I just absolutely love an oversized date  
window. And the fact that it has two different 
digits here. I just absolutely love that. And a  
separate seconds hand — which is what I think 
is so interesting — slightly off centered. So  
this is not a centered second sand. It’s also not 
exactly at five o’clock. It is barely off centered  
to the lower right-hand corner of this watch. And 
that’s probably one of my favorite things about  
the Rotonde — if you don’t consider the incredibly 
complicated movements that can come inside them  
is the absolute — the layout of the 
watch and the use of space — the way  
that they absolutely layered this? This 
watch has so much going on and yet it  
is so incredibly clear. You still get this 
incredible guilloché pattern that is known  
for all of these fancy Cartier watches, and 
you still get the oversized Roman numerals.
So they were able to do all of this with the dial, 
without giving up any of the brand signature that  
sort of make Cartier what it is. And it’s still 
an incredibly easy to read watch — which is  
something that you do run into a lot of problems 
with overly complicated dials and movements.  
Now, we flip this over in the back. This actually 
has a very unique movement in the Cartier line. Of  
course it is an eight day power reserve manual 
winding movement. And I do love the fact that  
—again, going back to why I love power reserve 
indicator so much — it’s a very practical thing  
to know if it is mainly a manual wind watch. So 
even if you have a huge collection and you’re  
putting all your watches in watch winders, 
that’s not going to help you with this one.
So knowing exactly where you are in that 
eight day long power reserve is a very  
convenient thing for any watch collector to 
have. Now the movement itself. This is — you  
do have all of the jewels visible in 
this incredible exhibition case back  
not a whole lot visible here, but that’s 
also because this is actually a — what they  
call — a 9910 caliber movement. I believe every 
Cartier that’s going to be manual wind with an  
eight day power reserve is going to have this 
caliber. And it’s actually a Jaeger-LeCoultre  
movement, not an in-house Cartier movement, 
but that can be expected. Of course,  
Cartier known predominantly as a jeweler and also 
as sort of a watch designer. So they did outsource  
this movement to JLC, but it is incredible and 
it goes with this watch so incredibly well.  
This is an 18 karat gold white gold case 
with this beautiful exhibition case back.
And of course, we also have the white gold 
deployant as well. This is really the — I  
would say — the watch collector’s Cartier. If 
perhaps your collection is mostly Patek Philippes,  
Vacherons, and more of the higher — more of the 
fine watch making and time keeping type of brands,  
you might not have a lot of Cartier’s in your 
collection — or really have been shopping for  
them in the past — but the Rotonde is the model 
that should get your attention. Even if you have  
no interest in owning a Tank or a Roadster or 
anything like that, the Rotonde is a model that  
deserves your attention. Even if this particular 
one might not be what you’re looking for, they get  
a lot more complicated and a lot more impressive 
than this. So keep your eye out on this movement,  
whether or not you were looking for this 
one or another Cartier in our inventory,  
we have a ton. And of course it’s not just 
for the 18 carat white golds. We’ve got a  
wide variety of Cartier and of course, a ton 
of other brands before — that’s if you don’t  
know who we are. If you are, you should be 
liking, subscribing to this channel already  
and giving us a call so we can get the next 
time piece on your wrist at SwissWatchExpo.com.