Vintage
Cruvon presents a rare 1971 Pierre Cardin-Jaeger Espace Craterdome watch, offering a detailed look at its unique design and historical context. This article explores Cardin's brief but impactful foray into watchmaking, inspired by space travel and characterized by bold, futuristic aesthetics.
. Look at his villa posted by a member Ubik here in that thread, I think this watchwith it's packaging would be completely at home in there!
A brief introduction, after designing collarless suits for the Beatles in 1963 and Nasa Spacesuits in 1970, Pierre Cardin launched his very brief Espace watch line in 1971. He was inspired by space travel from 1961 when the cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin was the first man in space then. Made of metal blocks, lucite cubes, layered disks, contouring arcs, smoky crystals, bold stripes or flying saucer-shaped Futuro domes, most are very rare and all are mechanical watches. They were fitted with one-piece super-wide bands and manual winding Jaeger FE68 movements. Sold from 71 to 73, at his Espace boutiques, these space inspired watches coincidentally disapperaed at the same time as NASA stopped sending man to the moon.
This one is NOS, has the original tube packaging and strap and had been in storage for 4 decades. Approximate dimensions 55mm long x 45mm wide by 10mm tall (middle) to 15mm tall (ends) and has a Jaeger (LeCoultre) Mechanical Manual Movement. This model was made to represnt a cratered form, a volcanic erruption of brushed metal rising high and revealing the cratered dial.
Enjoy!
This is not an often seen watch, to say the least. I think I saw a few in some catalog auctions, and on the net. I've never seen one in the flesh. One thing surprises me: Are you sure the movement is manual? At this time, most were automatic, as automatic movements were seen as a progress. Nevertheless, this is a terrific watch, funky, futuristic, and very coherent with the space villas shown by Ubik in your previous post. Thanks! Best, Nicolas
Thanks Nicolas. Yes, I had it serviced the first time a while ago, the movement is mechanical and not automatic. I should have asked for some movement pics. I guess Pierre Cardin was more into the stylistic aspect of horology back then rather then going more modern with the automatics. Plus I think he knew this watch was not a daily wearer but more a portrayal of ones stylistic personality for occasional wear, so maybe thought it fit to keep them mechanical:)
Next time you go to your watchmaker, he opens the caseback and you take some pics of the movement? It is always interesting to see what they " put " inside this kind of watches! Thank you so much. Best, Nicolas
Sure will Nicolas. Btw another detail I forgot to mention, the back of the tag says was $108 back then:)
What goes around comes around and this style has now come back in fashion. Very interesting piece so thanks for the review. It looks very comfortable to wear. The only watch i've had with a curve like that is my Azimuth spaceship. Its really nice to see that it has a reasonable quality movement inside as well as a funky case. Best Graham
Fantastic to see it it this condition with its packageing. Thank you for posting
This thread is active on the Jaeger-LeCoultre forum with 20 replies. Share your knowledge with fellow collectors.
Join the Discussion →
