Extra thin French 18 carat gold keyless dress watch Circa 1930

Gold knife edged dress watch
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An extremely fine and very rare, extra thin 18 carat gold open faced knife edged (montre couteau) keyless pocket watch made by Cartier in Paris, France, circa 1930. The polished case has a central blue champlevé enamel bird crest on the back. A matte silver, engine turned dial with Arabic hour numerals, an outer minute track and blued steel Breguet hands. The matte gilt movement has 17 jewels, a straight line lever escapement, cut bimetallic compensation balance, blued steel flat balance spring and an index regulator.
Dial signed Cartier, case numbered.
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Diameter: 47 mm
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Thickness: 6 mm
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Signed: Cartier
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Couteau is the term used by Cartier in their manufacturing records to describe the type of ultra thin watches with knife edged cases, open faced or hunting cased models. These watches, with thicknesses of less than 4 mm for the open faced and less than 5 mm for the hunting cased version, are among the thinnest mechanical watches ever produced.
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For these thin watches from the first half of the 20th century, Cartier used movements from Edmund Jaeger (Jaeger-LeCoultre), who had just invented a movement only 2 mm thick. In the 1920s, Cartier and Jaeger formed a joint venture, the European Watch & Clock Co., whose signature can be found on many Cartier movements. Movements were further sourced from Vacheron & Constantin, who, from 1940, utilized a movement which was only 1.31 mm thick.