A solid fourteen carat white gold, manual wind, Cartier dress watch. This refined, elegant and thin wrist watch is unmistakably Cartier. The design is very clean. With a smooth, but fairly thin frame around the dial, tapered straight lugs and a classic Cartier dial of a white background with black glossy printed Roman numeral dial. The logo is the font used by Cartier from the 1960's and '70's.
This is a quite rare watch, but quite in common with what Cartier were doing for their North American stores at this time. We find a lot of contract pieces that were made in the U.S, purely for the U.S market. It would be very easy to imagine that during the mid-part of the twentieth century Cartier in Paris would simply not have been able to keep up with the growth and expansion of their business in a market that was expanding at rates not seen prior, after the turbulence of Word War Two. This was fueled by a burgeoning and voracious consuming middle and upper middle class, who were being encouraged to consume at a rate not seen in the developed world before.
During this time there were a select number of watches and clocks made by third party manufacturers and retailed under the Cartier name in their boutiques. A practice now seemingly unthinkable. However, at this time, and indeed earlier in the 1920's and 30's, pieces can be found made by Movado, Concord, Piaget, Rolex, and in this case; Baume & Mercier. Cartier, in fact, went on to purchase Baume & Mercier and Piaget in 1988.
There would likely have been a design brief obtained as to what pieces were required, and how they were to look, as the DNA of Cartier is still very much present in these pieces. This is no exception to the rule here. In fact, this bears great resemblance to the Cartier pocket watches from the 1920's with clean plain dial, black printing of Roman numerals and outer minute track and fine leaf hands.
The fine white gold case that holds the movement is signed both on the outside with 'B & W' stamp, and inside with full Baume & Mercier branding, along with the internal serial number. The unique stamped Cartier serial number is also clear and present on the case back. The case is unpolished and in excellent condition throughout. Inside this case is a seventeen jewel manual wind Baume & Mercier caliber 1050 movement. The bridge is stamped 'KBU'; this is the import mark for Baume & Mercier USA which confirms its delivery into the US for retail. The movement has just undergone a full service and is keeping excellent time.
The dial is in very good condition overall with a few very light age marks, barely visible. The Cartier signature is strong, as is the printing for the numerals and minute track. The 'Swiss Made' stamp is visible at the base of the dial. The dial is original and not re-finished.
Overall, this is a very handsome and fine dress watch. The profile of the case is very thin, being just under seven millimeters thick, making for a wonderful evening, or black tie watch. It is also a perfect watch to pair with a suit as it will fit unobtrusively under a dress shirt sleeve. The case, although not big by todays standards at thirty three millimeters wide (not including the crown), is a good size for this style of watch and with longer lugs it does not feel 'small'. It also feels bigger due to the fairly thin frame around the watch, and the larger expansive white dial with finely printed numerals sitting in this fine frame. The original, period correct, interlocking C's Cartier steel buckle is presented with the watch. The perfect watch for the fan of the understated beauty that Cartier brought to the watch world in this rare and handsome package.
