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.