The Cartier Crash happened at an fascinating second within the historical past of the corporate. In 1967, Cartier London was the final of the three historic Cartier boutiques which had been nonetheless being run by a member of the household – the boutiques, though related traditionally, had been impartial companies (Cartier New York was offered in 1962, and Cartier Paris, in 1966). To say it was a time of upheaval for conventional luxurious is to say nothing in any respect. Cartier was the main consultant, bar none, of conventional European and French notions of luxurious and had constructed its enterprise on catering to the wants of royalty, and (particularly in America) these aspiring to be royalty. Within the Sixties, nonetheless, this white-glove strategy to luxurious was starting to look more and more untenable and antiquated and as a gesture to the zeitgeist, Cartier London, below Jean-Jacques Cartier’s path, produced a small handful of watches that had been, for Cartier, as dramatic a break with custom because it had ever identified.
That watch was the Cartier Crash. The Crash was designed by Jean-Jacques Cartier in collaboration with designer Rupert Emmerson and for many years, the persistent origin delusion for the watch was that it was impressed by a Cartier watch that had been on its proprietor’s wrist throughout a deadly automobile crash – the affect and fireplace had been speculated to have melted the watch into an intriguing form. The truth is each extra mundane and extra fascinating – the Crash represents the altering tastes of the Sixties, definitely, however additionally it is a watch wherein, in distinction to the origin story, completely nothing has been left to likelihood.
Solely a dozen or so unique London Crash watches are thought to exist. With so few, and with curiosity amongst collectors so excessive, you may’t actually discuss a market worth – there simply aren’t sufficient of them and so they come up too seldom. The final knowledge level we’ve got is an unique London Crash that offered for $1,503,888. If one got here up tomorrow, solely God and the ghost of Louis Cartier may say how a lot it could go for.
There are fairly just a few (comparatively talking) Crash watches which aren’t a part of the unique manufacturing run at Cartier London, and this contains the sequence of 400 which had been produced by Cartier Paris within the Nineteen Nineties. The Cartier Crash is now within the present catalog and the checklist worth on the time of writing is $36,500, nevertheless it stays a watch which is seldom seen within the wild and the relative rarity of recent manufacturing Crash watches appears to solely add to the enchantment. The model of the Crash we had for A Week On The Wrist makes use of the Cartier caliber 8971, which is the Jaeger-LeCoultre caliber 846 – traditionally constant, as the primary London Crash watches additionally used a JLC caliber.
A Week On The Wrist
Generally it’s pretty straightforward to foretell the way you’ll react to a watch earlier than you put on it – in spite of everything, a dive watch is a dive watch is a dive watch, no less than up to a degree. The Crash, nonetheless, turned out to defy expectations, no less than for me. Chances are high that except you may have had an opportunity to truly put on a Crash earlier than, you haven’t worn something even remotely prefer it. The watch appears in pictures as if it will likely be a considerably quirky watch to put on however not essentially a charismatic one. Nonetheless, over a interval of longer publicity, I came upon that there’s fairly a bit in regards to the Crash that’s straightforward to overlook at first (or second, or third) look.
Perhaps it’s the identify, or the city legend of its origin, or each, however the Crash can appear at first like a reasonably wacky design. In spite of everything, the thought of “crashing” a Cartier watch would appear to suggest a distortion that’s each radical and random, relative to different Cartier designs. In truth, the design is extraordinarily refined and each element has been totally thought out, in order that the ultimate impact, whereas definitely uncommon, has all of the classicism and dignity of any Tank Louis Cartier.
The case of the Crash is clearly asymmetrical however that’s removed from the entire story. For those who draw a line down the middle of the watch, from the apex of the case and thru the pivots of the hour and minute arms, you’ll discover that the middle line doesn’t cross by way of the underside apex of the case. Nonetheless, the general visible impact of the watch is symmetrical due to the composition of alternating bulges and indentations, particularly the one at VIII. The centerline additionally passes by way of the highest and backside apexes of the pointed oval containing the phrases “Cartier” and “Swiss Made” within the heart of the dial.
The Roman numerals are additionally extraordinarily subtle in structure and design. Each numeral is exclusive – the numbers aren’t constructed up from a normal character set and the elongation, form, and thickness of every numeral and every ingredient of every numeral differ, generally dramatically, from one numeral to the following. The shapes may be very advanced – the skinny leg of the X at XI has a posh S-curve, as does the skinny leg of the solitary V, and the form of the V echoes the indentation on the decrease proper facet of the case. It’s actually outstanding – each Roman numeral has been particularly designed to enhance and harmonize with the case and the impact actually is as if the case had been stretched and compressed, with the numbers distorted as if that they had been printed on some fluid medium.
A Genuinely Distinctive Watch
Each wristwatch – or simply about each wristwatch – owes some side of its design to its antecedents within the historical past of watchmaking. I can’t consider one other watch that even remotely approaches the Crash. The Crash is a radical re-imaging of essentially the most primary components of the costume watch.
One of the vital fascinating issues in regards to the Crash, I feel, is that it had the potential to look extraordinarily dated. In spite of everything, it debuted at a time when Pop and Op artwork had been flourishing and in a method, it’s as a lot a product of its time as Andy Warhol’s soup cans. A variety of watch designs from the interval rejoice in exuberant coloration schemes and extroverted case designs however not all of them have aged properly and in lots of instances, whereas they’re nonetheless interesting, they’re additionally irrefutably of their period – not a nasty factor, however simply one other instance of how design fads, like Cadillac tail fins, can come and go relying on the vagaries of well-liked tastes.
However the Crash is kind of the precise reverse of a gimmicky design. It’s too well-thought-out, too fastidiously executed and it’s imbued with simply as a lot steadiness – albeit far more dynamically expressed – as any of the numerous basic Cartier watch designs from the early a long time of the twentieth century. And it’s inimitable in essentially the most precise sense of the phrase. You possibly can knock off a Tank or a Submariner (and plenty of manufacturers have – in some unspecified time in the future designs, whether or not their originators need them to or not, start to turn out to be a part of the frequent design language of their class of objects), however I can’t think about anybody being optimistic sufficient to attempt to imitate the design of the Crash and had been anybody to attempt I really feel fairly certain they’d not meet with both business or vital success.
The Crash is 55 years outdated this 12 months. Usually, the relevant cliché could be, “typically imitated, by no means equaled.” The previous isn’t true of the Crash – I don’t suppose it has ever been imitated – however for sure, as an indication of simply how a lot sophistication you may wring from just a few primary design components, I wrestle to think about a watch that pulls off a chunk of high-wire, no-safety-net design so properly. It’s the most effective examples I do know of what Cartier excels at – making one thing very tough look really easy that you simply don’t even discover the trouble. It’s like watching a ballet dancer on the high of their type: You don’t see the approach, simply the dance.
