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?

Dec 11 , 2023

The Cartier Crash watch has been spotted on the wrist of celebrities like Tyler, the Creator. Photos: @tanisova/Instagram, @goldberger/Instagram

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

Cartier is often credited with creating the world’s first wristwatch, the square Santo de Cartier in 1904, that was made as a precision instrument for pilots. The timepiece’s angular design starkly contrasted with the round dials found on pocket watches at the time. The design also set the tone for Cartier’s legacy and opened the door to the luxury jewellery house’s penchant for unusual, unique and organic silhouettes for the wrist.

The Cartier Crash was launched in 1967, and the original editions are very rare. Photo: @tanisova/Instagram

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.

The Cartier Crash takes an unusual design route. Photo: @tanisova/Instagram

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.

The dial of the Cartier Crash recalls the “melting clocks” in Salvador Dali’s The Persistence of Memory painting. Photo: @tanisova/Instagram

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.

The Cartier Crash design has a tale to tell … two, in fact. Photo: @tanisova/Instagram

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.