The yellow gold watch realised HKD15.6 ($AUD2.74 million) at Sotheby’s Hong Kong Important Watches sale on 24 April, significantly surpassing its highest pre-sale estimate.
It is considered one of only three pieces produced during a limited late-1980s revival of Cartier’s London production, linking it directly to the original 1967 design.
"Created by Jean-Jacques Cartier, head of Cartier London at the time, and designer Rupert Emmerson, the original crash was released at the height of the Swinging Sixties," writes Rachel Cormack for Robb Report.
"It is rumoured to have been inspired by a melted Baignoire Allongée recovered from a car crash or by Dalí’s 1931 painting, The Persistence of Memory, but the truth is, it was a last-ditch effort by the then-struggling jewellery house to appeal to trendy Londoners."
The previous Cartier watch record was set in May 2022, when a 1967 example of the same Crash model sold for $AUD2 million. A 1973 Cartier London Baignoire and a 1967 Cartier London Tank Normale also set records at the auction.
More than 300 vintage Cartier watches, assembled over 25 years by a single collector, have been placed at auction, described as the most significant and comprehensive vintage Cartier collection ever brought to market.
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