On being a member of the “Cartier mafia”:
“In the past few years, I have become increasingly obsessed with Cartier watches, thanks to a few friends who are very passionate Cartier enthusiasts. We are sometimes jokingly referred to as the Cartier Mafia. My Cartier collection has grown pretty quickly, and I was invited along with my friends by a Cartier Watch community manager to check out the brand’s new watches on the first day of Watches & Wonders back in April, when they were unveiled. I just received my Cloche de Cartier last month.”
Love at first sight:
“Among the new Cartier watches, the main attraction for me, as well as my friends, was the Cloche de Cartier, partly because Cartier does not produce the Cloche often. In fact, it has been more than a decade since the previous Cloche watch was released. I was particularly attracted to the yellow gold model – it is also available in rose gold and platinum – as I find that it suits my skin tone best. I did not hesitate much to place an order for it then. It’s also becoming harder to fight for Cartier watches in recent years, especially those of the Prive collection (which the Cloche de Cartier is a part of), due to the rising interest in classic Cartier shapes.”
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Why I like the Cloche de Cartier:
“It’s undeniably the shape. Cartier is known for being the ‘watchmaker of shapes’ as they have a great knack for producing shaped watches that are whimsical yet classy and timeless. The Cloche is no different. Cloche is French for ‘bell’, and the watch resembles the service bells that you can spot in malls and hotels. What is so fun about the watch is that it also doubles up as a mini desk clock when you place it on its side. It looks gorgeous, whether it’s on the wrist or on a desk, and grabs your attention every time.”
My wearing experience thus far:
“The wearing experience is different, but in a good way. Because of the unconventional orientation of the watch, I have had to get used to reading the time. However, I got my head around it pretty quickly and it has been very fun so far. As my other watches have normal time orientation, the uniqueness of the Cloche makes it a breath of fresh air.”
And that’s not all:
“Earlier on, I also ordered the new coloured-dial Tank Must watches in all three colours (red, blue and green). Looking back, I’m lucky I did as they are becoming harder to get now. To me, these new Tank Must models capture the essence of what Cartier set out to do with the original models of the ’90s – to deliver fun watches with fantastic value propositions. I find each dial colour to be incredibly charming and I like that I can match each of them to what I’m wearing and my mood for the day.”
(Image of Nana Ahmad: Photography, Phyllicia Wang; Art Direction, Fazlie Hashim. All watch images courtesy of Nana Ahmad.)
