I will not apologize for leading this column with a great vintage CA perfect replica Cartier Tank L.C. two weeks in a row – I cannot control this; I am at the liberty of the market, okay? This is a very interesting Tank L.C. variant to see surface at Fellows in the UK, one that I have not seen before, in fact. If you know vintage Cartier, you know how unique the watches from London in the 1960s and early 1970s are. Jean-Jacques Cartier assumed the position of his father, running Cartier London, after WWII, and by the early 1960s, he decided to start producing wristwatches in London rather than continue to import Paris-made pieces. The high quality fake watches were made by hand, one by one, and the designs are uniquely “Swinging Sixties” London.
To simplify a complicated story, CA best fake Cartier re-unified in 1972. When I spoke about “pre-acquisition” Cartier in reference to last week’s Tank L.C., this 1972 re-unification is the same acquisition. This is important to note because the watch we are looking at here is stamped with London hallmarks dating production to 1973. And to that, I say a big “huh, that’s strange.” But everything I can see from the photos, both on the listing and separately provided to me by the Fellows team, checks out. The watch looks correct, as do the hallmarks.
Further intriguing me is the case construction of the cheap super clone Cartier Tank L.C. With no screws in the case sides or caseback, this case style of the Tank L.C. Extra-Plat is very uncommon and has come to be known by collectors as a “hidden screw” case.
While the CA luxury copy watches production year is a slight mystery, the condition here looks to be bulletproof. Given the condition, serial number-matching London-hallmarked deployant clasp, and “large” 23x30mm case size, I assume this auction will run.
This 1973 online replica Cartier Tank L.C. is lot 29 of Fellows’s Watches auction on Thursday, October 31, at 5:00 AM ET.