The Cartier Pebble (sometimes called the ‘baseball’) is a wristwatch with a rounded, pebble-shaped gold case, produced by Cartier London in the early 1970s under Jean-Jacques Cartier. The form is essentially a square rotated to sit on its apex, softened into a fluid rounded outline, with the dial rotated 45 degrees so that the corner points to twelve o'clock. Cases were made by hand in the Wright & Davies workshop in Clerkenwell, most likely by Sam Mayo, the highly skilled workshop head. The individual parts (case, dial, hands, sapphire winder) were each handmade, then delivered to Eric Denton at 175 New Bond Street. Each watch took several months to complete.
Cases measure approximately 35–36mm. The movement is a manually wound Jaeger-LeCoultre Cal. P838, with a Glucydur balance, signed by Cartier. Dials are cream with black Roman numerals and blued steel sword hands; examples carry London hallmarks dating them between 1972 and 1975.
Pebbles were made in two sizes, for men and women. Only six large-size examples are believed to exist: five in yellow gold with cream dials, and one in white gold with a black dial. A rarer variant, the ‘Turtle’ (distinguished by its hooded lug design), is known in only two examples, one of which is in the Cartier collection. Surviving pieces are rarer than the Cartier Crash, and auction results at Phillips and Bonhams have significantly exceeded estimates. A 2021 Phillips Geneva sale reached CHF 403,200 against a CHF 50,000–100,000 estimate, as documented in the accompanying blog post The Cartier Pebble Watch and Jean-Jacques Cartier.
Note: In 2022, Cartier issued a 150-piece limited edition reissue (ref. WGPB0003) to mark the Pebble's 50th anniversary, a reference to Jean-Jacques Cartier's original design, though the original London pieces remain in a category of their own.
Sources
- Bonhams, sale 27665, lot 108 (London hallmark 1972 example)
- Bonhams, sale 26684, lot 52 (Pebble "Turtle", London hallmark 1975)
- Phillips, Geneva Watch Auction XIII, lot 88 (CHF 403,200)
