Harry Fane Vintage Cartier Arc Shaped Watch, 1955 18k Yellow Gold

Harry Fane is well know for his vintage watch and jewellery collections. Since 1978 he has been collecting pieces from Cartier Golden Years of the 1920s & 1930s. He is recognised as a world authority in this field with a special emphasis on the objets d'art.

A Whimsical and Chic Cartier Wristwatch Cartier, fundamentally was very classical in their productivity. However, by looking through the archive photographs it is quite amusing to see how inventive and how radical some of their designs were. There are examples of pendant watches, primarily diamond set from the 1920’s but in 1933 there was a very similar watch to this made and again, there is an illustration from 1943 of a very similar design.

By the 1940’s, wristwatches were very well established. It may be strange to say that wristwatches didn’t really become mainstream until the 1930’s and it’s interesting that Cartier was so inventive so early on. This watch is stylish, fun and very unusual. This example was made in Paris c.1955 

Enamelled dial signed Cartier with Arabic numerals and blued “spade” hands An 18kt yellow gold backwinder Dial cleaned and reprinted 18kt yellow gold

Dimensions: 23.8mm width and 18mm height and 6.2mm depth.