Why the Cartier Crash is making a comeback: Kanye West, Jay-Z and Tyler, the Creator have been spotted wearing the watch with the unusual dial … but was the design really inspired by a car accident?
Silhouettes that defined the house’s watchmaking in the 1960s and 1970s are making their way back from the archives as Cartier puts fresh new spins on them, from new sizes to colour and gem set references.
The Panthère de Cartier and Baignoire that are said to have taken inspiration from the shape of a bathtub, have become increasingly popular over the past several years.
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But the Crash de Cartier takes the top spot when it comes to organic forms that seem to define the logic of watch design. The Crash was first launched in 1967: the piece never quite received mainstream popularity simply because of its scarcity.
Like the melting clock taken straight out of Salvador Dali’s The Persistence of Memory painting, the Crash’s shape is often described as a mangled oval. The hour markers curve to the form of the case, which adds to the design’s surrealist aesthetics.
Legend has it that inspiration for the design came from a Baignoire watch that survived a car crash and was brought to the Cartier atelier for service, where Jean-Jacques Cartier, great-grandson of Cartier’s founder Louis-François, took an interest. The distorted case inspired the piece that we now aptly know as the Crash.
However, the origin story is a romanticised tale – Cartier instead credits a collaboration between Jean-Jacques and artisan and designer Rupert Emmerson for the design.
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The watch rose from relative obscurity over the past decade thanks to a sudden surge in interest among celebrities and collectors. Jay-Z wore one with a skeletonised reference in 2022. Images of him with the watch circulated on social media, further piquing the interest of pop-culture commentators and watch enthusiasts.
Before the design was spotted on the rap mogul, the timepiece was seen on the wrists of celebrities like Tyler, the Creator, Kris Jenner and Kanye West. The classic version of the watch is in gold with a leather strap, à la West’s rose gold piece.
The piece has also taken on new life over the years with various gemsets, coloured enamel, and, in the case of Kris Jenner, a gold bracelet and a case set entirely with diamonds.
Vintage renditions of the timepiece have appeared at auctions and sold for substantial prices. An early edition Crash from 1967 fetched US$1.5 million in 2022 on the online auction site Loupe This. The yellow gold timepiece was sold to its original owner at Cartier London. The lot sold to an undisclosed buyer for almost double its already high estimate of US$800,000.
- A Crash sold by Cartier London in 1967 went for US$1.5 million on auction site Loupe This in 2022 – the watch was initially expected to fetch US$800,000
- Recalling the melting clocks in Salvador Dali’s The Persistence of Memory painting, the Crash has hour markers curving to the case, adding to its surrealist look