Cartier Ultra-Slim Dress Watch by Movado, 'Fab Suisse' Dial French Import

Dealer description — Oliver & Clarke

By the mid 1970s, Cartier has secured itself as a global name in luxury goods — namely jewelry, and of course, watches. But prior to this time, the maison was much smaller and produced far fewer goods. As such, anything prior to the early 1970s can be considered special, rare, and usually interesting... In fact, Cartier subcontracted a handful of other brands to produce watches for them: Movado, Piaget, Bulova, etc. The piece that we have here is one of those watches — manufactured by another notable brand that you may have heard of: Movado. If you've ever visited our website, you don't have to dive too deep to learn that we are HUGE Movado fans. That is, of pre 1980s Movado... Dating to circa the 1960s, this piece features a 32mm ultra-thin case constructed out of 18k yellow gold. Rotate it to the side, and its ultra-slim profile is immediately apparent, coming in at just under 5mm in thickness (or rather lack-thereof). It shows normal signs of wear throughout with no notable damage or inconsistencies and retails clear, defined hallmarks and engravings. Inside, the satin silver dial is nicely preserved, showing some light wear and aging with excellent printed black indices and Cartier script on the top half. The simple dial is complimented by an equally simple, black-painted 'pencil' handset. Powering this piece is an impressively thin manually-wound movement by Movado. Flip it over, and there are French import hallmarks clear and present, which match up with the 'Fab Suisse' text on the bottom half of the dial. In addition to quite simply being a beautiful example of 1950s-1960s design, this piece is a piece of a bygone era of Cartier history.... ... and we'll bet you don't see another anytime soon.