Cartier

Cartier

Cheich

A historically important and unique white gold wristwatch, Circa 2010

Dial: white

Calibre: quartz, jewelled

Case: 18k white gold, case back secured by 4 screws

Case number: No. 1, 3316AF and 62020C

Closure: brown Cartier leather strap and 18k white gold folding clasp

Size: 38 mm length x 27 mm width

Signed: case, dial and movement

Accessories: Cartier Certificate and presentation box

The story begins with a race across the desert. Founded in 1978 by famed motorcyclist Thierry Sabine after he himself got lost during a desert rally race, Paris Dakar immediately gained the reputation of being the ultimate endurance automobile race in the world. Beginning in the French capitol, the gruelling twenty day race would end an astonishing 10,000 kilometers away in Dakar, Senegal, with enrollment open to anyone across three categories: motorcycle, car and truck. Combining adventure, camaraderie and both human and mechanical endurance, for three consecutive weeks both man and machine were pushed to the absolute limit in some of the most beautiful landscapes on the planet.

Inspired by this magnificent spectacle and fueled by their historic spirit for adventure, Cartier was eager to get involved and agreed to sponsor Paris Dakar in two ways. One of the most difficult stages of the race was the crossing of the Tenere, a 1,500 kilometer wide behemoth often referred to as “the desert that scares the desert”. The famous stage was christened the “Raid Santos of Cartier”, paying tribute to the daring aviator whom the world’s first wristwatch was made for. Second and more famously was the Cartier Challenge. Starting in 1983, Cartier announced that any racer who was able to win consecutive editions of Paris Dakar would be awarded the Cartier Challenge Trophy, which instead of being a cup, took the shape of a wristwatch.

Cartier knew that to commemorate the winner of such a momentous achievement, the watch had to be every bit as daring as Paris Dakar itself. Cartier is masterful at taking inspiration from culturally significant source material while remaining tasteful in its designs, and for the Challenge Trophy, La Maison looked toward the soul of the race, the desert. Though the Sahara was the adoptive home to Paris Dakar, the real inhabitants were the Tuareg people. The men of the tribe wore distinctive blue headscarves, Cheich in French, earning them the nickname “blue men of the desert”. Cartier had found the perfect inspiration.

The Paris Dakar Cartier Challenge ran yearly between 1983 and 1985. As luck would have it, it would not take long for someone to walk away with the prize. Gaston Rahier, considered to be one of the greatest champions in motorsports history, proved himself worthy of his title “King of the Desert” by winning the 1984 and 1985 editions and became the first recipient of the Cartier Challenge Trophy. Tragically, he was also to be the only recipient of the Trophy, as the following year in 1986, founder Thierry Sabine passed away in a helicopter accident, and the Cartier Challenge died with him.

A total of four examples of the mythical Cartier Cheich were produced in the period. The first two were made in 1983 with the launch of the Cartier Challenge, one men’s and one women’s. Another was created specially for Thierry Sabine, though the current whereabouts of this watch are unknown. After the men’s example was awarded to Gaston Rahier, a final fourth one was created for the next winner, but was never awarded. In 2022, Sotheby’s proudly auctioned the Gaston Rahier example, offered directly from Rahier’s family, for a price in excess of one million euros, a fee completely befitting of the rarest and most fabled Cartier wristwatch shape. For decades, that was it: one lost, one sold and two in Cartier’s archive collection. But impossibly, a fifth was born.

For Giorgio Seragnoli, co-author of the famous Cartier Bianco book and indeed owner of the most significant collection of white metal Cartier watches of all time, perhaps the only trophy watch that was left for him to possess was the ultimate trophy of all, that of Paris Dakar and the Cartier Challenge, and only for him would Cartier oblige. In 2010, they created their most extraordinary special commission ever, a unique white gold Cheich wristwatch, No. 1 of 1. The result was the ultimate combination of anything any collector could ever want: the rarest and most hallowed shape ever made by Cartier, with the richest history ever imbued upon one of their designs, created in a unique white gold execution for their most significant collector, for a calibre of request that the brand would never again be willing to accept. Sotheby’s is proud, humbled and elated to present the most impossible, the most triumphant, the most elusive and the most breathtaking Cartier wristwatch ever created.