I’ve found that sticking to my rule of “if it doesn’t make your heart flutter when you try it on, don’t buy it” has kept me from many regrets. That said, I did buy a modded Seiko monster years ago that never felt quite right.

Yeppp manual wind cartier 430 movement!

Yeppp manual wind cartier 430 movement!

Around 8k us I think

A watch you don’t see every day and certainly not a watch I expected to own as my first Cartier! It’s a 1 of 300 Chinese market-only watch released sometime this year. I happened to be in China on some business and casually mentioned that I heard about this watch to the nice saleslady at a boutique. We picked up a few other things for the Mrs. and thought nothing more of this piece, but a few days later I get a text message saying she somehow tracked one down for me. Holy balls, I thought, as I had originally mentioned it just to make some smalltalk conversation, never thinking that I’d have even a smidgen of a chance at a 1/300 in such a huge market like China!

Long story short the thing was/is absolutely stunning, with the jade(!) cabochon and Chinese letter “lu”–which here has a double meaning of the bankers’ notation for “six” as well as "大陸“， which means “China”. The rose gold dial catches the light in so many different ways and from every different angle. I slapped on an aftermarket Delugs strap because the stock croc strap is way short on their Dumont pieces. It wears so comfortably and unobtrusively (dare i say perfectly), and is quite the departure from the sports watches I’m used to. I’m still in awe that I own this piece.