The Second Cartier Tortue Minute Repeater

Antiquorum sold this Minute Repeater for $640,500, two years after selling the previous one for over one million Swiss francs. The Second Cartier Tortue Minute Repeater, according to the auction house, is the first known Cartier Minute Repeater, dating from 1928, a year before the previously auctioned example. It's worth noting that the auction house managed to uncover another one two years after claiming to have found the "only Cartier minute repeater from the Art Deco era" (as certified by the Cartier archives). It demonstrates how knowledge and scholarship have evolved over time.

Unlike the previous one, this second Cartier Tortue Minute Repeater had a rhodium-plated M. Cal. 12 1/2"' with fausses côtes ornamentation, 29 diamonds, and a Breguet balance spring. Antiquorum also sold it two years after the initial Cartier Tortue Minute Repeater, for a lower price. The movement was also supplied by European Watch & Clock Co. and measures 30 mm in diameter.

Price: $640,500