Among Cartier’s most daring creations, the Baignoire Allongée distills the maison’s fascination with elongation and proportion into a watch that is at once sculptural and impossibly refined. First introduced in the late 1960s as the boldest interpretation of the Baignoire — a form originally conceived in the 1910s and later favored by icons such as Jeanne Toussaint and Catherine Deneuve — the Allongée reimagined Cartier’s oval “bathtub” silhouette with heightened theatricality. At nearly 47 mm in length, its elliptical case envelops the wrist with the presence of a jewel, dissolving the boundaries between timepiece and objet d’art.
The present reference 2515, crafted in warm 18K pink gold, exemplifies this audacious design. Its profile, scarcely more than 7 mm thick, lends an extraordinary delicacy to the elongated form, drawing the eye toward the guilloché dial where painted Roman numerals appear to stretch and bend in rhythm with the case. The composition is completed by blued steel sword hands — a visual signature of Cartier’s enduring aesthetic vocabulary.
At the flank, the crown is adorned with a sapphire cabochon, a discreet yet unmistakable code of the maison, while within beats a hand-wound caliber, underscoring Cartier’s choice of traditional horology to animate a work of avant-garde design.
Presented here in excellent condition and accompanied by its full set, the watch represents an enticing opportunity for collectors seeking not only a quintessential example of Cartier’s design daring, but also a timepiece of enduring elegance and rarity.