Luxury titan Cartier’s Santos 100 Squelette watch is one of the brand’s strongest haute horlogerie statements. This time-only watch debuted this year at the recently concluded SIHH and is already on its way to becoming an icon.

In fact, Cartier boldly rewrites the rules on skeleton watches, subjecting the traditions of craft to the dominion of its own brand values in what is one of the most powerful assertions of brand identity in watchmaking. Cased in palladium, at 46.5mm X 55mm, this is an incredibly muscular skeleton.

The key here is the spirit of time, which is seen clearly in the open-worked movement. The traditional baroque cues are absent, replaced instead by plates cut out to resemble Cartier's trademark Roman numerals. While a few contemporary brands can claim to have pioneered the industrial and contemporary aesthetic with their open-worked watches, Cartier has gone one better and achieved pure class.