Cartier
An Art Deco onyx, enamel, and yellow gold open-faced keyless watch with two-tone dial, Circa 1925
Lot Closed
June 17, 05:13 PM GMT
Estimate
15,000 - 30,000 USD
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Read more.Lot Details
Description
Dial: two-tone silvered guilloché
Caliber: European Watch & Clock Co. Inc. mechanical, 18 jewels
Case: onyx, enamel and 18k yellow gold bezel secured by four screws, 18k yellow gold pendant
Case number: inside bezel stamped 19'637, 13'204, movement holder stamped 13'204, pendant stamped SL6'356
Size: 50 mm diameter
Signed: dial signed Cartier, movement signed European Watch & Clock Co. Inc.
Box: no
Papers: no
The Paris International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts was a special exposition held from April 29 to November 8, 1925. The Exhibition unveiled to its 16 million visitors novel ideas of the international avant-garde in the fields of architecture and applied arts, giving birth to the Art Movement we know of as Art Deco today. While the term 'Art Deco' was not yet used, the years immediately following the Exposition, saw the same aesthetic from the exhibition copied around the world in the towering skyscrapers of New York, the ocean liners crossing the Atlantic, and the Royal residences in Tokyo.
The frenzy extended to fashion, jewelry and watches. Maison Cartier, always at the forefront of taste, embraced this new style during the 1920s and 30s. The present watch boasts a solid onyx case that stands in contrast to its two-tone silvered dial. Framed by a 18k yellow gold and enamel bezel, its symmetry and simplicity of form, perfectly exemplifies the Art Deco design ethos from the Paris Exhibition.
Powering a watch is the highly desirable caliber from European Watch and Clock Co. Inc, a joint venture between Edmond Jaeger and Cartier. most renown for pushing boundaries on creating ultra thin watches.