We Love These Cartier Watches From The Upcoming Sotheby’s Auction

This spring, Sotheby's is doing something that shouldn't be possible: more than 300 vintage Cartier watches, assembled over 25 years by a single collector, are going under the hammer across Hong Kong, Geneva and New York in a sale titled The Shapes of Cartier. The collection is expected to fetch upwards of $15 million.

More than the money, though, it's the sheer scale of what's been gathered here that makes your head spin. As Sam Hines, Sotheby's global chairman of watches, puts it: "To replicate this collection or better it would be, in my opinion, nigh on impossible — especially as so many models it contains are known to be unique."

The auction's thesis is simple and correct: Cartier's great contribution to watchmaking wasn't the movement, it was the form. The Tank, the Baignoire, the Crash — these are watches that exist first as objects, as sculpture, as ideas. And nowhere was that philosophy pushed further than at Cartier's London branch, which operated with uncommon independence between 1955 and 1979 under the creative stewardship of Jean-Jacques Cartier. The London workshop produced low volumes, took bigger swings, and left behind a body of work that is now, in Hines's words, nearly impossible to track down. "This is especially true of watches produced by Cartier London under the creative leadership of Jean-Jacques Cartier," he says, "who had the most daring approach to watch design and had the idea of the Crash model, now a truly iconic piece within all Cartier creations."

Top Cartier Watches From The Upcoming Sotheby’s Auction

The first sale opens in Hong Kong on 24 April, followed by Geneva on 10 May and New York on 15 June.

Cartier Crash, London (c. 1987)

Estimated price: $400,000–800,000

The Crash doesn't need much of an introduction. Conceived in 1967 at Cartier's Bond Street workshop, it is arguably the most radical wristwatch design ever produced by a major maison — a fully deformed case and dial that literally looks like it did survive a crash. For years, the mythology held that the design was born from a Baignoire Allongée melted in a car fire, or drawn from Dalí's dissolving clocks. The truth, as Francesca Cartier Brickell revealed in The Cartiers, is more deliberate: Jean-Jacques Cartier and designer Rupert Emmerson took the Maxi Oval, pinched its ends, bent the case, and arrived at this. Fewer than a dozen of the originals were made between 1967 and 1970. This example, in yellow gold, is believed to be one of just three produced in 1987.

Tank Asymétrique (Parallélogramme), London (1992)

Estimated price: $60,000–80,000

The Tank is the most recognisable watch Cartier ever made. The Asymétrique — or Parallélogramme — is what happens when that formula was subverted. The rectangular case is twisted to an oblique angle, and the dial follows, turning the whole thing into a lozenge that reads the time at a slant. It sounds gimmicky, but its also the coolest thing I’ve seen. Originally designed in 1936 as a late flourish of Art Deco modernism, it was revived by the London workshops during their most experimental window between 1967 and 1974, this time with a more fluid, sculptural quality. This particular example, in 18ct white gold with blue numerals, is hallmarked London 1992. Rare doesn't begin to cover it!

Tank Allongée, London (1992)

Estimated price: $40,000–60,000

If the Asymétrique twists the Tank, the Allongée simply stretches it to an almost absurd degree. This 1992 London edition is in white gold with a black dial and the elongated Roman numerals practically crawl off the edges of the case. The Cartier London signature appears in flowing script. It was conceived during the late 1960s and early 1970s but this later piece carries all that same energy.

Baignoire, London (c. 1973–74)

Estimated price: $50,000–68,000

The Baignoire is one of Cartier's great shapes — an oval case that typically tapers inward at both ends. The London workshop, characteristically, had other ideas. On this example, the case stretches outward at either end instead of pinching in, dramatically expanding the bezel's surface area and turning the dial into something that recalls the Maxi Oval's extreme proportions. The Roman numerals are exaggerated to match. It's a gentleman's-sized piece, which makes it rarer still among London Baignoires.

Driver's Watch, London (1966–67)

Estimated price:  $50,000–80,000

The driver's watch concept is exactly what it sounds like: a tool watch designed for a specific kind of person in a specific kind of moment, when motoring was still a serious pastime and reading your wrist at the wheel was a genuine problem worth solving. Cartier Paris had addressed it in 1933. This 1966 London edition revived the idea in characteristically bold fashion — a deeply curved rectangular case in 18ct yellow gold, the whole thing shaped to sit against the wrist at the angle you'd actually need it to. It's a watch built around a function that barely exists anymore, which somehow only makes it more appealing.