Cartier, Paris
Tonneau, Émail ‘Lapis Lazuli’ | A yellow gold tonneau form wristwatch with enamel simulating ‘lapis lazuli’ brancards, Circa 1968
Auction Closed
April 24, 04:23 PM GMT
Estimate
80,000 - 120,000 HKD
Lot Details
Description
Cartier, Paris
Tonneau, Émail ‘Lapis Lazuli’
An yellow gold tonneau form wristwatch with enamel simulating ‘lapis lazuli’ brancards, Circa 1968
Dial: matt white dial signed Cartier Paris, black Roman numerals, blued steel epée hands
Calibre: 9¼’’’ circular cal. P838 Jaeger LeCoultre movement signed Cartier, Paris, damascened Côte de Genève decoration, lever escapement, 18 jewels, annular balance, flat hairspring, adjusted to 3 positions
Movement number: 1'862'495
Case: 18k yellow gold tonneau-form case, enamel simulating ‘lapis lazuli’ brancards, octagonal lapis lazuli-set crown, flat polished bezel, flat case back with vertical satin finish, secured by four screws
Case number: inside back stamped 52'108, outside case back with EJ punch mark, French eagle’s head control mark and hand stamped Paris Reference numbered 023'407, 52'108
Closure: black unsigned leather strap and 18k yellow and pink gold deployant clasp, both sections of the clasp with punch mark and French eagle’s head control mark, hand stamped numbers 20'758 to primary side and 58 to secondary
Size: 30 mm length x 27 mm width
Accessories: none
Cartier have used enamels and hard stones to enhance the decoration of their watch cases since the early 20th century. During the 1960s and throughout the 1970s, the use of hard stones such as lapis lazuli, malachite, tiger’s eye and onyx to create dials and case/ bracelet enhancements became highly fashionable. At the same time, enamels were also used to provide decorative highlights, sometimes themselves simulating the effect of prized hard stones. Here Cartier have introduced textured blue enamel in imitation of lapis lazuli to form rounded, polished brancard highlights to the sides of the watch’s case, the crown itself is mounted with a faceted section of lapis lazuli stone. During this period, Cartier introduced similar decorative schemes to a variety of other models.
Cartier introduced their first tonneau-form wristwatch in 1906. Unquestionably one of the most important wristwatch designs ever conceived, it is a model that demonstrated how successfully the watch could be shifted from pocket to wrist. It showed that an entirely new genre of timepiece could be created, one that had no reliance on the styling of the pocket watches that preceded it. Testament to the brilliance of its design is the fact that both its shape, and many elements of its styling, can be found repeated again and again in a variety of models by many different makers right up to the present day. This tonneau-form wristwatch dates to the late 1960s and, unusually, has blue enamel highlights to the case sides (brancards).
François Chaille, Franco Cologni, The Cartier Collection: Timepieces, Paris: Flammarion, 2006. See p. 451 for a Petite Tank Allongée with decorative ‘lapis lazuli’ blue enamel sides.
Jader Barracca, Giampiero Negretti, Franco Nencini, Le Temps de Cartier, Milan: Publiprom, Second Edition, 1993. See p. 258 for two examples of 1960s Cartier stone-set wristwatches.
George Gordon, Cartier - A Century of Cartier Wristwatches, Hong Kong: Timeless Elegance, 1989. See pp. 196-197 for photographs of a Tank with ‘tiger’s eye’ case sides is shown and dated to c. 1963.
卡地亞 巴黎
Tonneau Émail ‘Lapis Lazuli’
黃金酒桶形腕錶，備琺瑯“仿青金石”式錶邊 ，約1968年製