iLander
Ideal_Rock
- Joined
- May 23, 2010
- Messages
- 6,731
Skippy said:How did you find it? Now you have me wanting one!
I found mine on ebay!
I bought it from a dealer named forwatch out of Hong Kong. I checked his old feedback on the toolhaus website. To be sure it wasn't fake, I compared it to the Cartier Basculante models on Antiquorum (a watch auction site), Sotheby's site, Christie's site, various watch dealers and googled for reviews and pics on the various watch forums. I also borrowed a book from the public library on Cartier watches (The Cartier Tank) and I looked at vintage Cartier ads that were for sale on ebay. If you search on ebay, Cartier watches are best found under "Cartier tank", "watch" is usually not in the heading. I also looked at the fake versions on "replica" websites that I found with google, to educate myself. Be careful that you get the small one, and one without engraving on the closed side. All Cartier watches have a serial number and model number on them, the model number on this one is 2386. It's also important that the works be original. It was quite a research adventure!I've purchased used luxury out of Hong Kong before; Louis Vuitton purses. I used a purse forum to "authenticate this Vuitton" (the mods look at the listing pics and can tell if it's real or fake-FREE!). HK is the largest luxury goods market in the world, those ladies have nothing to do but shop, and I'm happy to take their gently used goodies off their hands.
There are a couple of other reputable ebay vendors that also sell watches; brandoff and crossroad881. And there are ton of ebay vendors that sell watches with "satisfaction guaranteed", sell you a fake watch, then when you complain, refund your money and let you keep the watch, so you'll leave positive feedback. Pretty treacherous out there in watchland.But there is no "authenticate this watch" and with Cartier it's really hard to check them. They make so many tiny variations on their watches, and a ton of them were faked in the early '80's. And some of the posts on the forums were conflicting to things I had found in my research. So, it's not easy to find a used Cartier.
Or you can just skip all that and get this one
https://www.luxuryexchange.com/shop/jewelry-and-watches/cartier/authentic-cartier-ladies-tank-basculante-watch/prod_2000.html
I found this vendor on a purseforum, and they're said to be reputable. This watch has the box and papers, which mine didn't. It also looks less scratched, though mine had very few scratches. The cost of this one is several hundred more than mine, though.
Are you sorry you asked yet?
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