Cartier, Paris

Reference 608 Tank Bec d'Agile | A yellow gold rear-wound rectangular wristwatch with eagle’s beak-form lugs, Circa 1959

Auction Closed

June 15, 08:08 PM GMT

Estimate

20,000 - 30,000 USD

Lot Details

Description

Dial: cream dial signed Cartier, stretched radial Roman numerals, inner chemin-de-fer minute track, blued steel epée hands, recessed rectangular subsidiary seconds with blued steel dauphine hand

Caliber: 4½’’’ Jaeger-LeCoultre baguette-form duoplan calibre 409 with grained finish, signed European Watch and Clock Co. Inc., lever escapement, 15 jewels, annular balance with poising screws, flat hairspring, metal protective movement cover

Movement number: numbered to edge of movement 247'228

Case: 18k yellow gold rectangular, the upper case with polished tops to the brancards and satin finishing between, Bec d’Aigle (eagle’s beak) lugs with screw-set lug bars, satin finished case sides with four screws to secure back, right-hand case side with French eagle’s head control mark, octagonal gold winding crown set with faceted sapphire, outside case back with Edmond Jaeger punch mark, interior of case back and top hand stamped 38039

Case number: outside case back with hand stamped number 38'039 and feintly 0**32

Closure: 18k gold deployant buckle

Size: 33 x 19 mm

Accessories: Cartier presentation box

Referred to by Cartier as the 608, this model is known as the ‘Bec d’Aigle’ (eagle’s beak) due to the peaked lower edges of the lugs. Interestingly, the 608 was the first Cartier to be designated a model number when it was launched in 1931.

Viewed from the side of the case, the ends of the lugs form a stylised profile view of an eagle’s head - the screw-setting of the lug bars abstractly form the eagle’s eye, the tips of the lugs its beak. To create the unbroken sweep of the case sides, Cartier used the rear-wound duo-plan movement made by Jaeger-LeCoultre.

Barbara Hutton (1912-1979) the Woolworth heiress and socialite owned an example of the Ref. 608. Hutton’s watch was originally made in 1949 and was acquired by her during her marriage to Prince Igor Troubetzkoy, a few years after her divorce from Cary Grant. Hutton’s watch is now part of the Cartier Collection and is illustrated in The Carter Collection: Timepieces