See more objects with the tag timekeeping, luxury, faceted, craftsmanship.

Object Timeline

  • We acquired this object.

1916

  • Work on this object began.

1926

  • Work on this object ended.

2017

2024

  • You found it!

Object ID #1024497197

This is a Mystery Clock with Single Axle. It is dated ca. 1921. Its medium is gold, platinum, ebonite, citrine, diamonds, enamel.

One of Cartier’s most sophisticated high-end productions was the "Mystery" clock, a collaboration between clockmaker Maurice Coüet and Cartier in Paris. An ingenious mechanism creates the illusion of the hands appearing to float in this example of about 1921 owned by Anna Dodge, whose vast wealth came from her husband Horace Dodge’s family automobile business.

It is credited Lent by Cartier Collection, Inv. CM 29 C21.

  • Scarab Belt Buckle
  • square-shaped diamonds, baguette-, brilliant-, round old- and single-cut....
  • Lent by Cartier Collection, Inv. CL 341 A26.
  • 86.2016.3
  • Object ID #1024497181
  • bone, enamel, gold, emeralds, sapphires, diamonds, platinum, onyx.
  • Lent by Cartier Collection, Inv. VC 70 A25.
  • 86.2016.2

Our curators have highlighted 2 objects that are related to this one.

  • Cigarette Case
  • platinum, sapphires, diamonds.
  • Lent by Siegelson, New York.
  • 61.2016.6
  • Mystery Clock
  • coral, lapis lazuli, aquamarine, platinum, gold.
  • Lent by Private Collection.
  • 13.2016.103

Its dimensions are

H x W x D: 12.9 × 9.7 × 4.8 cm (5 1/16 × 3 13/16 × 1 7/8 in.)

This object was previously on display as a part of the exhibition The Jazz Age: American Style in the 1920s.

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<ref name=CH>{{cite web |url=https://collection.cooperhewitt.org/objects/1024497197/ |title=Object ID #1024497197 |author=Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |accessdate=18 April 2024 |publisher=Smithsonian Institution}}</ref>