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Episode 5: The Cartiers and Their Clocks
About This Talk
For a clock to be described as a mystery clock, the hands must appear to float in mid-air with no visible connection to the movement. Each one took months to create. When the Duchess of Westminster discovered her husband had been unfaithful, she hurled hers across the room. It shattered into a thousand pieces.
Joined by Marie-Cécile of Christie’s Geneva — who surrounded herself with Cartier clocks for the occasion — Francesca explores the full arc of Cartier’s relationship with time, from Alfred Cartier’s curiosity shop in 19th-century Paris to the post-war clocks that reflected a changed world. The story moves from the shared craftsmen — enamellers, lapidaries, and setters who worked on both clocks and jewels — to the Santos wristwatch, born from aviator Alberto Santos-Dumont’s complaints about checking his pocket watch while flying. It visits the 1900 Paris Exhibition, where Fabergé’s fourteen eggs prompted the brothers to travel to Russian workshops and absorb the art of Guilloiché enamel. It explores the mystery clocks — those extraordinary objects where the hands appear to float in mid-air — and the stories surrounding their clients: from Queen Alexandra, who gave one to her son King George V at his coronation, to the Duchess of Westminster, whose mystery clock was shattered against a wall. The webinar closes in the trenches of the First World War, where Jacques Cartier — the only brother fighting at the front — looked down at the floor of Rheims Cathedral and saw its great stained-glass windows lying in fragments.
Key Moments
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