Interview: Carole Forestier-Kasapi for Cartier

The watchmaking powerhouse behind Cartier's Fine Watchmaking collection talks to us about her triumphs at Cartier and reveals how she creates watches

By Ashok Soman

We have been waxing lyrical about the Cartier Fine Watchmaking collection for years now, since the days of 2008. When the first of these watches was shown at the Salon International de la haute Horlogerie – a flying tourbillon wristwatch with Poincon de Geneve – in 2008, there was some thought that Cartier was going in the “me-too” direction. As if that would have ever been the case.

A few years on and anyone who did not believe in the mission of the Fine Watchmaking department must be blushing. In French, the credit is all too clearly made known on Carole Forestier-Kasapi’s card: Responsable Creation Mouvements. As the Head of Fine Watchmaking at Cartier, Forestier-Kasapi has left her mark on watchmaking forever with amazing creations including the Central Chronograph, the Astrotourbillon, the Astroregulateur and the ID One concept watch.

This year, on the occasion of the launch of the Minute Repeater with Flying Tourbillon and another dizzying array of high watcmaking gems, we finally have the honor of speaking to Forestier-Kasapi herself. It was an experience we enjoyed so much that we did it twice.  

Calibre 9402 powers the new Tourbillon Minute Repeater and is the brainchild of Forestier-Kasapi