Your native London editor here, reporting on London-based auction house Watches of Knightsbridge, which will be selling off a very rare 18k yellow-gold 1:1 fake Cartier London Maxi Ronde.
Deep-cut UK Swiss made replica Cartier talk is all the rage right now. The uptick in vintage Cartier prices at auction could likely come from the buzz on social media or Cartier’s somewhat ferocious (but no doubt successful) marketing narrative and celebrity placements. Then there is of course a refocus on vintage reissues for the serious collector-heads like the 2022 Pebble or last year’s Tank Normale. Corporate and organic marketing has become so entangled these days it’s hard to know where the buzz really comes from. AAA quality fake Cartier UK has stridently come back into style these past few years with celebrities and big-time collectors worshiping at the altar of the watchmaker of shapes.
Ben Clymer, on the other hand, blithely claims that “the Crash is now pedestrian.” I gather he means to say that we are inundated with pictures of celebrities and very wealthy individuals wearing these astronomically priced and hard to find (vintage)/tricky to order (modern) high end copy watches. I will add that Clymer counts a London Crash as the exception to the rule. But the Crash shape has reached saturation point. It’s gone far beyond collector territory and has entered the zeitgeist. Outrageous for some of us to stomach, I know!
All of a sudden everybody knows what a Crash is, and slowly people are learning about other B-side hits from the maison. We only have to look at recent auction results for hard evidence of the luxury replica Cartier Crash trickle-down effect. A Coussin Bamboo sold at Christie’s last season in Geneva for CHF 50,000 and a Cartier London “Dice” Sold for CHF 138,60. That’s a huge increase in previous estimates seen for models such as these. We’ll have to see what the Geneva auctions bring this weekend. The estimate for this particular Cartier London Maxi Ronde replica for sale is set at 40,000–90,000 GBP. There’s also a ladies’ sized Bamboo up for sale if that piques your interest with the estimate set to 6,000–12,000 GBP.
Swiss movement fake Cartier London is usually seen as a period of extreme experimentation. While Paris and New York were under non-Cartier ownership during the period of 1965-1973 the combined talent and ambition of Jean-Jacques Cartier and designer Rupert Emmerson at top copy Cartier London led to the creation of the most eccentric models, including the Decagonal, Octagonal, Maxi Oval, Maxi Ronde, Pebble, Losange, and Twin Strap, etc.
Created in 1972, the very last year of best quality replica Cartier London, this Maxi Ronde is currently the second example known in yellow gold and one of four known London Maxi Rondes in total (two are known to exist in white gold). A manually-wound Jaeger-LeCoultre caliber (P838) powers this 35.2mm by 6.55mm Cartier super clone online uk. The caseback is correctly stamped “JC” for Jacques Cartier, a London hallmark denoting 1972, and a unique Cartier London stock number, “1334.”
The Maxi Ronde was manufactured at the Wright & Davies (W&D) workshop, established by Swiss copy Cartier London in response to the post-war luxury taxes on imports having made it prohibited to import to London the most popular models made by Cartier Paris. W&D made wristwatches to be sold primarily by Cartier London. In 1950 they produced examples of the Tank Normale and other familiar models and it was not until 1965-6 that the iconic cheap replica Cartier London designed watch cases were offered for sale at the Boutique in Bond Street.
Who knows what’s next, but high quality replica Cartier fever shows no signs of slowing down any time soon. It’s a testament to Cartier and its enduring impact on pop-culture. From monarchs to Andy Warhol, to Tyler the Creator. Even if the watch world vipers will say we have reached peak wholesale replica Cartier popularity, it will be interesting to see if hype comes from unusual looks or if it boils down to a more predictable scarcity-creates-demand scenario.