製造商: Cartier 年份: Circa 1992 錶殼號碼: A 110283; inside caseback stamped 5330 型號名稱: Crash 材料: Platinum 機芯: Manual, cal. 160, 17 jewels 錶帶/ 錶鏈: Leather 錶扣: 18K white gold Cartier deployant clasp 尺寸: 21mm width x 38mm length 簽名: Case, dial, movement, and clasp signed 配件: Accompanied by Cartier pouch.
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The origins of the Cartier Crash, long shrouded in mystery and obscured by widely circulated mythology, have recently been revealed by none other than Francesca Cartier Brickell, the granddaughter of the innovator of the Crash himself, Jean-Jacques Cartier. Rather than a Surrealist homage or an accidentally mangled Maxi Oval, the Crash came into being with intention, from the minds of Jean-Jacques Cartier and frequent Cartier collaborateur Rupert Emmerson. Emmerson was a designer of objects for Cartier, audacious and visionary designs that can still be found in the auction catalogues of major houses. Their design of this radical form was in response to client demand for a “truly unprecedented watch”. History has shown that the call was not answered in vain, and the Crash embodies the societal and cultural changes of the 1960s.
Now well-established in contemporary popular culture, the Crash remains ever more desirable. This Cartier Crash, crafted in noble platinum and dating from the early 1990s, is a restrained and elegant iteration of the earliest versions of the Crash. With a manually-wound movement, the case is entirely hand-made, leading to a very small production run, possibly as low as eight pieces ever created in the 1990s. While Phillips has had the fortune of selling two examples of the platinum Crash in recent memory, the truth is that they appear at auction infrequently, for obvious reasons due to scarcity.
This particular example features crisp engravings and hallmarks to the caseback, and a nearly-flawless grené dial with carefully applied and raised numerals, the curves of which mirror that of the case. Accompanied by the matching asymmetrical buckle, it is an icon of the “swinging Sixties” that endures to the present day.
With the Constitution of 1848 came a new standard for luxury in France. Founded one year prior by Louis-Francois Cartier, the house of Cartier was one of the first to use platinum in jewelry making. This incredibly expensive material became the stepping-stone for Cartier to experiment in form, mechanisms and attitude. It helped men move from pocket watches to wristwatches, effectively making the watch much more functional and prominent in a man's overall wardrobe.
Cartier did not only touch on functionality. Inspired by a commissioned painting by George Barbier featuring a black panther at the feet of an elegantly bejeweled woman, Cartier began incorporating wild animals in his designs—most notably, Cartier Panthère rings, bangle bracelets and watches. Yet it wasn't until the late 1960s that the house of Cartier debuted their iconic yellow and rose gold LOVE collection, which includes the famous bracelet that only a special screwdriver can open.
