Cartier’s Portico Mystery Clock No. 4 will go up for sale at an upcoming Phillips watch auction, carrying an upper estimate of CHF 3.2 million ($3.9 million).
Created in 1924, the piece is one of only six the jeweler made between 1923 and 1925, and the only one with a hexagonal dial, Phillips said Friday. It will be on offer at the Geneva Auction: XXIV, which will take place in association with Bacs & Russo on November 7 to 8.
The piece is returning to auction for the first time in 30 years, having most recently come from the collection of Alain Cartier, grandson of Louis Cartier. The clock also reportedly once belonged to the maharaja of Nawanagar, Sir Digvijaysinhji Ranjitsinhji Jadeja, who ruled what is now Jamnagar in Gujarat, India, from 1933 to 1947.
Designed as a temple gate, the clock has a six-sided carved rock-crystal dial suspended between two square rock-crystal columns. The hands, which form a dragon, are pavé-set with rose-cut diamonds. It also comprises yellow gold, platinum, enamel, onyx, jade, mother-of-pearl and seed pearls.
Phillips sold one of the other six timepieces, the Cartier Portico Mystery Clock No. 3, in its May 2025 Geneva auction, where it garnered CHF 3.9 million ($4.8 million).
“In every collecting field, there is the good, the better and the best,” said Aurel Bacs, senior consultant for the Phillips watch department. “Sometimes, the best is so far above everything else that the word ‘best’ struggles to do it justice. Portico No. 4 is in a league of its own. When it comes to mind-blowing aesthetics, artistry, craftsmanship, elegance and majestic proportions, words simply fall short.”
Image: The Cartier Portico Mystery No. 4 clock. (Phillips)
