The Dice watch is a Cartier London wristwatch whose principal identifying feature is its dial: a square field carrying four circular apertures at the corners, arranged to evoke the four-pip face of a dice. The hands emerge from the centre, and the Cartier signature sits between the upper pair of circles. The result is a dial that functions as a visual pun on the object it resembles.
Design and Context
The watch belongs to the tradition of eccentric and novelty case designs that Cartier London developed during the mid-twentieth century under Jean-Jacques Cartier. That workshop produced a series of watches in which the case or dial departed radically from the conventions of the period: the Pebble used an irregular organic form; the Crash exploited a distorted asymmetric case; the Domino watch built its visual identity out of playing piece imagery. The Dice fits the same sensibility, applying a graphic concept to a standard square case.
The four circles on the dial are a defining feature and the primary means of identification. Their arrangement corresponds specifically to the four-pip face, which distinguishes it from other circular-motif designs.
Sources
- Francesca Cartier Brickell, The Cartiers (Ballantine Books, 2019)
