The watch that ate my waitlist
By Priya Nair, Singapore ·
I'll start with the boutique politics, because with the Crash that's most of the story. You don't walk in and buy one. You build a history, you mention it at the right moment, you wait, and then you're offered one when they decide you're the sort of person who should have it. I have friends who've been more patient for a Crash than for a husband.
The design dates to Cartier London in 1967. The story everyone repeats, that it was inspired by a watch mangled in a car accident, is probably just a good story, but the shape does look like a Tank that has been left on a radiator. It's the closest a watch gets to surrealist art, and on the wrist it's even stranger and better than in photos.
The small is 25.5 mm wide and 8 mm thick in gold, silver dial, Roman numerals melting down the case, on a 14 mm leather strap. The hand-wound 8970 MC has 38 hours, so you'll be winding it daily. Water resistance is 30 m. Treat it like you'd treat a vintage brooch.
Now, the money. List is 36,000 to 39,000 dollars, which for a small gold hand-wound watch on leather is outrageous on any rational measure. But Crash prices at auction and on the secondary market have been far above that, and nothing about the way Cartier controls supply suggests that changes soon. In my world, that's what scarcity looks like when it's managed well.
About the gold colour: the Crash comes in different golds over the years, and I'd choose based on your skin and your jewellery rather than the resale chatter. Yellow is the most classic and the most seventies. Rose is softer and, on a warmer skin tone like mine, almost disappears into the wrist, which is either the point or a waste, depending on your mood.
Should you buy one? If you're offered one at list, and you love it, yes, and keep it. If you're thinking of paying a big premium to a dealer to skip the queue, I'd hesitate. Fashion can turn, and you'd be buying at the top of a story that relies on everyone continuing to want one.
And don't wear it to meet your client's wife unless you want to talk about nothing else all evening.