the Cartier Cheich was never sold in boutiques. In the 1980s, Cartier partnered with the legendary Paris-Dakar Rally and created the Cartier Challenge: win the grueling 10,000 km race in consecutive years, and instead of a trophy, receive a watch inspired by the Tuareg people's iconic desert headscarf, the Cheich. The result was one of the rarest and most unusual Cartier watches ever made.
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The Cartier Chèche is one of the rarest watches in existence, originally created as a trophy for the Paris-Dakar Rally. Only five were ever produced: one awarded to a champion, one lost, two archived by Cartier, and a unique white-metal version created for a top collector. Its design is inspired by the traditional headscarves of the Tuareg people.
I can't believe I'm holding this watch.
This may be the rarest Cartier watch to ever exist.
Only five were made, one is in private hands, one is missing, two are locked in Cartier's
archives, and the secret fifth one is in this box.
This is the Cartier Cheche.
Unlike the Crash, the Tank, or almost any other Cartier creation, you couldn't just
walk into a boutique shop and buy it, you couldn't even see it in a shop window.
To get it, you had to win one of the most brutal automobile races on Earth, Paris-Dakar.
In the early 1980s, Cartier got involved with the legendary Paris-Dakar Rally, a nearly
10,000 km race from Europe into Africa, crossing deserts, mountains, and some of the harshest
terrain imaginable, and launched what they called the Cartier Challenge.
Winning once was extraordinary, winning twice in a row, almost impossible.
So the rule for the Cartier Challenge was simple, win Paris-Dakar back-to-back, and
instead of a trophy cup, the winner will receive a Cartier watch.
Now Cartier knew it couldn't just be another watch, so instead of looking at their existing
designs, they turned to the very thing that made the Rally legendary, the desert.
Because the Rally cut across the Sahara, Cartier took inspiration from the people who know
the desert best, the Tuaregs, also known as the Blue Men of the Desert.
They wore a distinctive blue headscarf called, in French, the chèche, and Cartier transformed
that scarf into a watch case, and one of the most unusual Cartier designs was born.
Then came the moment Cartier had been waiting for.
In both 1984 and 1985, motorcycling legend Gaston Rahier won the Rally back-to-back,
becoming the first person to complete the challenge, and also the only person who ever
awarded the Cartier chèche trophy watch before the challenge ended in 1986.
The chèche then became legend.
For decades, that was how it was.
Four chèche watches.
One belonged to Gaston Rahier and remains in private hands, then sold through Sotheby's
in 2022 for over a million euros.
The second belonged to the founder of Paris-Dakar, and is still lost until today.
Two more were made, but never awarded, and are locked away in Cartier's archives.
And that was supposed to be it.
Every known chèche was made in either yellow or tridor tricolour gold.
End of story.
Until 2010, because then a fifth was born.
In 2010, Cartier broke their rule.
They created this one for Giorgio Seragnoli.
He's one of the most important Cartier collectors in the world, known for collecting Cartier
only in white metal, far rarer than yellow.
Cartier turned one of its rarest watches into a one-of-one for their most important collector.
What's engraved on the case back?
This is the impossible watch.
The watch born from the desert, created for champions, and worn or seen by almost no one.
This is the Cartier chèche.
