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Vanities/Style

For staying on time in style, a watch still beats a screen. Now a treasured timepiece goes petite

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Just over a decade ago, Cartier launched the Ballon Bleu, an instant best-seller intended to evoke a balloon floating on a wrist. (Louis Cartier had a fascination with all things airborne and pioneered the men's wristwatch in 1904, after his friend, the renowned aviator Alberto Santos-Dumont, complained about the impracticality of a pocket watch in flight.) Now the Bleu's ladylike counterpart, the Ballon Blanc, has returned, marked by its delicate dial and a solitaire diamond nestled at the four-o'clock curve. The stone's placement bears another aerial echo: in ballet, ballon describes the phenomenon in which a dancer, mid-leap, seems to pause weightlessly aloft, making the name even more fitting for a watch whose face appears to stretch time.

KEZIAH WEIR