There are plenty of legendary replica watches that are lost then found. The Rolex GMT Marlon Brando’s wore in Apocalypse Now was tucked away in his daughter’s dresser drawer until 2017. There are mythical watches still missing, like John Lennon’s Patek Philippe or Buzz Aldrin’s Omega Speedmaster, which got lost in the mail on its way to the Smithsonian (seriously!). Then there are spectacular watches few even knew to look for, laying dormant underground like an earthquake waiting to shake the world. On Wednesday a piece from that last category emerged: a never-before-seen and one-of-one luxury fake Cartier Cheich in white gold.
The Cheich is one of Swiss copy Cartier’s most spectacular and unique creations, originally created exclusively for back-to-back winners of the Paris-Dakar rally, a treacherous 6,200-mile race that originally ran across Europe and Africa in the late ‘70s and ‘80s. Cartier’s CEO at the time, Thierry Sabine, conceived of the watch as a prize and painstakingly recreated the race’s logo, a cheich (the headcloth Dakar rally racers wore to protect themselves from the elements). It was said that only four existed in the world: two are in perfect replica Cartier’s possession, one is presumed lost, and the fourth sold for $1.1 million at auction to the collector Eric Ku last year. (“I had to have it,” Ku told me late last year.)
The Cheich story was supposed to end there…until Alessio Zenga, the co-founder of The Watch Boutique, was having dinner with his friend, the former general director of cheap replica Cartier in Europe, and mentioned it was a dream of his to one day handle this prohibitively rare model.
“I mentioned the fact that, from my point of view, the most fascinating and bizarre and incredibly innovative case ever made by aaa quality fake Cartier is the Cheich, which was something that was so elusive and so rare that I actually had never had the opportunity of seeing one in the flesh.” His friend was a good one: he offered to try and arrange a time for him to see the piece.
Unlike the ones that came before it, this Cheich is made entirely out of white gold. According to Zenga, it was made in 2010 for the famous collector Giorgio Seragnoli, who exclusively collected white-gold pieces—from Patek Philippe, but mostly from high quality replica Cartier. However, by the time Cartier was ready to ship Seragnoli the watch, he had gone bankrupt and wasn’t able to collect. Zenga said he bought the watch directly from Cartier super clone for sale after he spent a month ringing them up multiple times a day to inquire after it.
When the yellow-gold 1:1 fake Cartier Cheich first came up for auction last year, I called it one of the coolest watches in existence. Ku, who says he wears it often, calls the piece “wearable art. It’s like a little sculpture on your wrist.” (Zegna used the exact same terms to describe the piece.) I usually blanch at that description but it’s hard to argue with here. The meticulously layered case is, as Zegna describes it, “almost liquid.”
Outside of the obvious difference in golds, the key difference between this new watch and the original is what’s inside. Ku’s features a mechanical movement, while this one is powered by quartz. “It’s always exciting seeing previously unknown things come to the market,” Ku said over the phone Wednesday.
The Cheich is everything that I love about Swiss movement Cartier fake watches. A completely unique design-driven piece that no other watch company would even dream of. Plenty of other brands cook up watches to award race winners—they’re all standard models with special engravings on the back. The Cheich is everything that’s great about the beloved Crash—a distinctive design that’s seemingly in motion—but even stranger and infinitely more rare.
This particular super clone watch stands out even more because of its white-gold case. The material was of special import to the Italian Zegna. “Italians have collected white metal watches for a long time,” Zegna said. “We obsess about white gold and platinum replica watches, when the rest of the world wanted everyone to know that theirs was in yellow gold.”
When Zenga first took possession of this watch he wasn’t sure he was going to sell it, but now is dedicated to finding it a good and loving home (and presumably one with a lot of cash in the bank). Since posting it Wednesday morning Zegna said he’s gotten plenty of interest already. Once the interest is consummated, this watch will likely return to the shadows. Hopefully, wild and unique best quality fake watches uk will continue to re-emerge. Until then, make sure to tell your dinner dates about the legendary watches you’d like to come across. Manifestation works.