La ‘Carte des Nuages’ (literally, the Cloud Map) dial plays with the rich glow of white or grey mother-of-pearl, offsetting it with a glittering pair of ‘Antarctique cut’ diamonds marking 12, and a Princess cut diamond set at each of the 11 other hours. Etched into the surface, six fine guilloché gridlines anchor the composition, in a playfully modern take on the traditional craft of guillochage – with a subtle allusion to cartography. Taken from the central and most lustrous part of the oyster shell, the wafer-thin discs of mother-of-pearl used for these dials are rarely guilloché due to their fragility; to do so requires a highly specialised skill that only a few Maisons are able to source.
This exuberant and dressed-up expression of the Antarctique S also wears diamonds on the bezel, integrated lugs and first ‘C’ link of the bracelet, and a reverse-set diamond caps the winding crown. The sophisticated mix of steel and diamonds complements the visual depth and shape-shifting lustre of mother-of-pearl dial.