Last year, I called the perfect Cartier Crash replica watches the most important vintage watch of 2021, and honestly, that might’ve been a year early. Back in May, online auction site Loupe This sold an original London Crash for $1.5 million, a record for any top US Cartier fake watches. Now Phillips is getting in on the action, offering a fresh-to-market London Crash in its New York sale. Could this Crash set a new record?
I don’t think so, but this is Phillips, so it’s totally possible a couple bidders might get in the ho-ho-holiday spirit, keen on making sure Santa slips a little red Cartier box with something extra-special inside under the tree. See, that London Crash from Loupe This had a little detail to take it up a notch: It was from 1967, the year the high quality replica Cartier Crash watches was introduced, meaning it was one of the first few London Crashes ever made. In a hobby where collectors fetishize firsts, that means something. Like, probably a few hundred thousand dollars worth of something.
The luxury Cartier Crash copy watches at Phillips is from 1970, but what it lacks in chronology it might make up for with provenance: this particular example comes straight from the family of the original owner, one Daphne Farago, a noted art collector and philanthropist (she’s got a Wikipedia page!).
During her life, Farago made some huge donations, including more than 650 pieces of jewelry and 100 pieces of art to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. In her obituary (Farago passed in 2017), her son said she began collecting in the 1960s, “when collecting was affordable.” She didn’t have a formal art education, but she was drawn to the world of art by the stories it told. “To her, collecting was a creative enterprise that showed respect to the field of artists,” Alan, her son, said.
In other words, if you closed your eyes and pictured someone who might stroll into Swiss made Cartier replica watches in the early 1970s to buy this ridiculous-looking watch, it’d probably be someone a lot like Farago.
As for the Crash: Last November, Sotheby’s sold an original London Crash for CHF 806,500. Back then, Sotheby’s noted that it was just the third original London Crash to sell publicly over the previous 25 years. Well, since then, another two have surfaced, both fresh to market. It’s fascinating how cheap Cartier super clone watches drawing increased attention (and money, to be sure), can shake a few more loose. So when you’re at grandma’s this holiday season, make sure to ask if she’s got any watches lying around.