There’s a long history of replica watches being gifted to the winners of motorsport races and rallies. Rolex is likely the most famous practitioner, awarding a special Daytona to each of the winners of the annual 24 Hours of Le Mans and 24 Hours of Daytona endurance races. The luxury fake watches uk used as the prizes for these events are typically variants of an existing production model, featuring a special engraving, material, or colorway; they aren’t unique pieces specially conceived for the occasion.
There is always an exception to the rule, and in this case, the outlier comes from 1980s AAA replica Cartier UK, when Alain Dominique Perrin, the jeweler’s then-CEO, and Thierry Sabine, the founder of the legendary Paris-Dakar Rally, came up with the Swiss fake Cartier Challenge. The Paris-Dakar Rally started in 1979 as an off-road endurance competition where drivers start in Paris and race 6,200 miles across the Sahara Desert over approximately three weeks before crossing the finish line in the Senegalese capital. It’s considered one of the most difficult races in the world, but the grueling competition wasn’t enough for Perrin and Sabine. In order to win the best 1:1 fake Cartier Challenge, an individual racer had to finish first in the Paris-Dakar Rally in consecutive years. The back-to-back champion would then be awarded a brand-new watch, the Swiss made replica Cartier Cheich.
Designed by Jacques Diltoer, 1:1 fake Cartier’s Creative Director at the time, the Cheich is another example of Cartier’s incredibly creative and unique approach to “form” case designs. The unique case construction was inspired by the traditional tagelmust cotton headscarf – also known as a cheich – that’s worn by the Tuareg men, a Berber ethnic group that’s native to the Sahara Desert, for sun protection. The uniquely layered case is actually crafted from three different types of gold – white, yellow, and rose gold – that are woven together. The aaa quality replica Cartier was produced in two different sizes and with or without diamond setting. The smaller watch with diamonds would be awarded to any potential female winners of the race, while the larger example was intended for the male winners.
I assume Perrin and Sabine felt fairly confident that the Cartier Challenge replica for sale would be close to impossible. They were wrong. Gaston Rahier, from Belgium, racing on a BMW motorcycle, ended up winning the first two contests held after the Swiss made copy Cartier Challenge was first announced in 1984, becoming the first – and, for now, only – individual owner of a Cartier Cheich replica online. The Cartier Challenge was not long for the world. Sabine was tragically killed in a helicopter crash in 1986, and although the Paris-Dakar Rally continued to exist, Perrin withdrew the challenge and award.
In its short existence, it’s believed that only four best quality replica Cartier Cheich watches were produced in total. Cartier built a pair of male and female examples in 1984 when the Challenge was announced. After Rahier was awarded his watch, they built an additional example of the larger size for a potential future winner, before the perfect fake Cartier Challenge concluded. A fourth Cheich is believed to have been gifted to Sabine from Perrin. Rahier’s watch is slightly different from the rest as it features top super clone Cartier’s traditional railroad-style minute track on the dial. Two of the Cheich examples were never awarded and exist in the Cartier archive and will never be sold, while the watch owned by Perrin is understood to have been lost for good. Rahier’s watch is the only Cheich that fulfilled the model’s original purpose as a trophy, and the only Cheich in private hands.
Knowledgeable high end replica Cartier collectors and enthusiasts have long known about Rahier’s Cheich, with many considering it to be one of the rarest and most desirable Cartier fake watches paypal ever created. And now, after close to 40 years, Rahier’s watch is set to come to market for the very first time, when Sotheby’s opens up its “Fine Watches” online auction in Paris this Friday.