Head of Watches Charles Tearle shares his experience with the timeless designs and impressive craftsmanship of Cartier watches throughout his career, in the lead up to our unique Cartier Curated auction, taking place live online on 29 April, with viewing in London.
When I began this journey into the vintage and luxury watch industry in 1990, it was prior to the increased popularity of oversized, ultra complicated watches. Vintage Cartier, with their hand-made cases and elegant design, were king. A 1970’s Rolex Daytona was considered too young to be truly collectable, yet a 1970’s Cartier London Tank was immensely desirable and valuable. Some of my fondest memories in those early years was listening to various collectors or dealers discussing the merits of a Cartier watch as a watchmaker would open it for them examining the hallmarks, the stamps, how it was made, all fascinating.
I was fortunate enough to meet a watchmaker who created those watches in 1960’s London workshops and listen to his stories, which is possibly a reason I’ve become so fascinated and enthralled with the brand. How Cartier differed from regular vintage watches was in their method of production, or rather, lack of production. Each watch, certainly in London, was made by hand. It would commence with a movement, the casemaker then made a case to fit it before it went to the dial maker, who made a dial to fit the case, finally, a hand-made specially designed convex and concave square dial was made to fit and sealed into place with wax. As each part was hand-made, nothing was pre-produced as minor variations would mean they wouldn’t necessarily fit together. This is an art that isn’t generally used today due to the cost.