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Cartier. A highly rare and unusual 18K gold and enamel ball-shaped bezel-wound desk timepiece with 18K gold, enamel and nephrite stand
Lot 195

Cartier. A highly rare and unusual 18K gold and enamel ball-shaped bezel-wound desk timepiece with 18K gold, enamel and nephrite stand

SIGNED CARTIER, NO. 1332, MOVEMENT SIGNED EUROPEAN WATCH & CLOCK CO. AND ZENITH, NUMBERED 1026465, CASE SIGNED EWC CO. AND NUMBERED 1026465 AND 582, MANUFACTURED IN 1925

Closed11 May 2009

Price Realised

CHF 47,500

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Cartier. A highly rare and unusual 18K gold and enamel ball-shaped bezel-wound desk timepiece with 18K gold, enamel and nephrite stand
Signed Cartier, No. 1332, movement signed European Watch & Clock Co. and Zenith, numbered 1026465, case signed EWC Co. and numbered 1026465 and 582, manufactured in 1925
Nickel-finished lever movement, 15 jewels, wound by turning the bezel clockwise, the hands set by depressing a button on the back of the case and turning the bezel, silvered engine-turned sunburst decorated dial, Roman numerals on blank chapter ring, gold snake-shaped hands, in spherical case consisting of radiating geometric panels, black enamel revolving bezel, on two-part square-shaped nephrite stand, four gold and black enamel cobra head holders, case numbered, dial signed, movement signed European Watch & Clock Co. and Zenith
56 mm. diam., 69 mm. overall height

Specialist note

Another spherical clock on stand is described and illustrated in The Cartier Collection - Timepieces, Editions Flammarion, pp. 308 & 309, and in Le Temps de Cartier by Jader Barracca, Giampiero Negretti, Franco Nencini, pp. 177 & 188.

Whereas the latter examples are of very similar design, consisting of an enamelled sphere resting on four straight legs, the present model is entirely different: a plain sphere with distinctive geometric design resting on a highly unusual stand consisting of three lifelike cobra heads with ruby-set eyes. This altogether more interesting and innovative version of the standard examples would appear to be unrecorded in any of the Cartier reference works.