Cartier presented their Cartier ID One concept watch to show to the world that they not only produce timepiece with fancy design, but also master the technological capabilities and skills to differentiate and surpass their competitors with innovative watches with practical function.
Although merely a concept watch, a watch that is not be availale for commercial sales presently, the ID One show us an ambitious Cartier as a real player in the world of haute horlogerie. The hightlight of such concept watch is that is is built on a idea to creat a mechanical watch that does not require regulation and adjustment from production to everyday use in the whole life of the watch, which will be a great breakthrough for the watchmaking industry.
Presently, mechnical watches require adjustment at several procedures during the assembly process. But with sevearal key innovations, the Cartier ID One Concept Watch is adjust-free! For example, Cartier replace the metal with a kind of ceramic/glass material called Zerodur at the haispring part to overcome the fallback of the dimensionally and elastically unstable nature of metal. And there is a built-in Carbon Crystal used to absorb force and protect it from shock.
In the past, Cartier watches are more renowned in terms of their luxurious and audacious designs than in terms of watchmaking technology. As appearance can be easily copy or imitated, lots of Cartier replica watches are available in the market. Since Cartier replica watch looks so identical to its authentic counterpart and cost so little money, many people prefer to buy replica watches instead of paying thousands of dollars to pay for a real watch. After all, in regard of the function of the watch, there is no big difference between a replica Cartier watch and an authentic one, it is not reasonable to pay the extra money.
Now Cartier finally came up with a counter-strategy: to improve their watches technologically instead of superficially. It is indeed the technology and inside quality that differentiate a genuine luxury watch from a watch replica. So I think Cartier would finally get reward from the efforts of building such a concept watch in the long run.
But does it mean that Cartier replica watches are not attractive any more? Not exactly. In my opinion, replica watches and authentic watches have different market positions and customers. The technology upgrade on authentic Cartier watches will reinforce the rich to buy a real Cartier and may have a little appeal to a few middle class who are hesitating to buy whether a replica Cartier or a real Cartier, but for the rest people, they just do not care if their watches is adjust –free. A piece of quartz watch is adjust-free, isn’t it? For most of us, we want a watch that is of mid-end price with stylish appearance. If the replica watch can be made exactly like the genuine watch while bringing down the price, I think it still has its attraction to most people.
It is estimated that it would take about 5 year for the Cartier ID One concept watch to be put into commercial sales. It must be a instant hit if replica watch manufacturers can make it a bit earlier to release the Cartier ID One replica watch. Making a replica model does not take as much time as a real one, isn’t it?
