Sotheby’s Luxury Week

Geneva’s upcoming Luxury Week celebrates the finest examples of jewels, design, handbags, sneakers and watches. Among them, the Cartier Crash, which history has to be told.

It was first conceived in Cartier’s London boutique on Bond Street. The asymmetry of this watch appears almost as if Cartier had taken an oval and completely crashed it. It has a strong resemblance to Dali’s The Persistence of Memory, however, its design has no connection to surreal work. The idea came when a client of Cartier brought in his damaged Baignoire from an automobile accident to the London boutique in 1967. According to the story, it gave Jean-Jacques Cartier inspiration to the first ever made asymmetric case of the watch which symbolizes non-conformism and creative freedom. It was considered avant-garde upon its release, and it is this sense of defiance that almost certainly contributed the most to its success. It appealed to diverse collectors as Stewart Granger and Kanye West.

To have more info, click here.