Much like a lot of Cartier’s catalog, the Cartier Pasha has a long and storied history. According to legend, the Pasha was supposedly conceived by Louis Cartier for The Pasha of Marrakesh, Thami El Glaoui, in the early 1930s. As the story goes, The Pasha ordered a one-of-a-kind gold watch that could keep pace with his active lifestyle and boasted a level of water resistance that was uncommon at the time. Cartier’s answer was the Pasha; a large timepiece with a screw-down crown cover and metal grid that protected its dial. During the Quartz Crisis, Cartier reached out to Gerald Genta in 1985, of Royal Oak and Nautilus fame, to design a precious metal luxury sports watch that could capitalize on the growing market for such watches, like the gold Submariner at the time. Genta’s design was the Cartier Pasha as we know it today. It is a sizeable masculine timepiece with a sporty bezel, a unique screw-down crown cover, a clean dial, and its now-iconic Vendome lugs. The variant we have here is the Cloisonne Enamel Dial Pasha ref. 2508. Featuring an artistically executed Imperial Guardian Lion across its surface, this example’s orange, green, red, and blue dial is quite exquisite to say the least. Perfectly sized at 32mm in diameter and boasting the Pasha’s atypical design topped off with a diamond-set bezel featuring 40 brilliant-cut diamonds, this watch is a perfect example of everything that makes Cartier so special.

An exceptional combination of Cartier's design prowess, the Pasha's history, and Cartier's general capacity as a fine watchmaker and jeweler, the ref. 2508's cloisonne enamel dial and diamond-set bezel combine to create a true feast for the eyes.