Fragrance Bottles: Cartier Roadster’s Complex Cap
Jackel Cosmetics Ltd. (headquartered in Hong Kong and with U.S. sales offices in New York City and Hillsborough, NJ) produced the complex cap and stovepipe style collar for the Cartier Roadster fragrance. The team at Cartier asked the supplier to replicate the look of the watch winder on Cartier’s Roadster watch.
The cap is made of two Zamac parts crimped together. One part was nickel-plated with a shiny finish, and the other is a ring that was nickel-plated with a matte finish. “Zamac has multiple advantages—the coldness of metal, a heavyweight feel, and it can be plated like a jewel,” says Thomas Diezinger, sales director, Jackel France (Boulogne Billancourt, France).
The liner was made of black molded polypropylene overmolded with black SEBS soft plastic. This liner was crimped inside the Zamac overcap. “There are three tracks inside the polypropylene liner that guide the cap when it opens or closes. Recessed ends on the tracks allow the cap to close with a ‘click’ for a more high-end feel,” says Diezinger.
The stovepipe-shaped collar is also Zamac with three inserted brass nibs. “These sit inside the tracks and keep the cap in the correct position,” says Diezinger. According to Jackel, tight tolerances had to be monitored carefully or the cap would wobble.
“We also had to be very accurate in the positioning of the ribs on the collar. If they were too low, the cap wouldn’t close properly. If they were too high, there would be a gap between the cap and the collar,” says Diezinger.
The most challenging aspect of this project, however, was making sure that the vertical grooves surrounding the bottom of the cap were accurate and sharp, which took a great deal of technical expertise. Each piece was even polished manually. “This cap was handcrafted, just like a luxurious watch,” says Diezinger.
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