Record $2m Paid for 1987 Cartier Crash

(IDEX Online) - A Cartier watch from 1987 sold at auction for almost $2 million, smashing its high estimate and setting a new record for the 179-year-old company.

The yellow gold "melted" oval Cartier Crash realized HKD 15,616,000 ($1.994 million) at Sotheby's Hong Kong during the Important Watches sale on 24 April, the highest price ever paid for a Cartier watch

The previous record was USD 1.5 million, paid in May 2022 on the online site Loupe This for a 1967 version of the same watch (estimate $500,000 to $800,000).

The Crash was sold at the first in a series of Sotheby's auctions featuring over 300 vintage Cartier watches, collected over 25 years by a single connoisseur and representing "the most important and comprehensive collection of vintage cartier watches brought to market".

It smashed its pre-sale estimate of HKD 3.2 million to HKD 6.0 million (USD 408,000 USD to USD 766,000).

The watch is believed to be one of only three pieces made during a limited late-1980s revival of Cartier production in London production, combining extreme rarity with a direct lineage to the original 1967 design.

Pic courtesy Sotheby's show the 1987 Cartier Crash.