Looking back, 2021 was a big year for Tyler, the Creator. Forget music and what he’s known for – that year is when he graduated from Casio to UK best replica Cartier watches. Since then, he’s gone all in on obscure, hard-to-get pieces – the kind you’re more likely to see in a museum or art gallery than in the wild. It makes sense then that Cartier hooked him up when curating a special V&A exhibition, aptly named Cartier.
To give you a quick rundown, the exhibition is a massive Cartier flex right in the middle of London, packed with 350 of its rarest and sickest designs. Obviously, this includes watches like the legendary Crash, Tank à Guichets, and Cloche. But once you’ve snaked your way through these grails and Jackie Kennedy’s Tank (that’s now owned by Kim Kardashian) you’re met with another, equally mad ticker: Tyler, the Creator’s personal and ultra rare Cartier Obus Quadrant on a red leather strap – the very same watch he wore to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) party in 2021. “It’s more unexpected. We have a Crash, a Santos and a Tank, and so many other classic high quality fake Cartier watches. It was really nice that this was a watch that isn’t represented otherwise,” says exhibition co-curator and watches and jewellery journalist Rachel Garrahan.
It’s classic Cartier and then some. You’ve got the characteristic Roman numerals, and square-shaped case. But rather than having the numerals on the dial like a lot of other Swiss made copy Cartier watches, they’re on the ultra wide bezel. It was released around 1987 and comes with a Paris stamped dial. This watch in particular was likely picked up from Monaco Legends Auction in 2021, so isn’t something you see on the regular.
And the UK cheap super clone watches are right at home in his collection. Tyler has a Cartier Crash, Santos-Dumont, Baignoire and Pebble in his personal line-up. For most Cartier die-hards, this sounds like a pipe dream. The Crash has a market value between £100-300k, thanks to an insanely limited production run, only being produced in different iterations four times in its history. The Pebble is a ’70s design gem, and the Santos-Dumont is widely considered the first male wristwatch ever. So he’s as serious as they come when it comes to Cartier’s new age of collectors, and a perfect fit for the exhibition.
“We approached him in a number of ways. And in the end, Cartier was very helpful in contacting him,” says Garrahan. “[His collection] speaks so much about the way people fall for Cartier and the sheer kind of range of joyful shapes and creative designs that encompass shop replica Cartier watches. So he was perfect for it, and really fortunately for us, he understood why a watch from here would be so valuable in the exhibition.”
With notable wrist checks on stage and awards shows, the rapper has influenced the current appetite for smaller, shaped online replica watches. He was early to get on the teeny watch train when he was pictured wearing the Quadrant back in 2021, and now he’s joined by guys like A$AP Rocky, and Jacob Elordi, and Paul Mescal in leading the charge. The brand “has long been a symbol of style and elegance and originality, and initially that was through royal and aristocratic clients,” says Garrahan. “But we really wanted to bring that story right up to date, which is why I wanted to see if Tyler, the Creator, would lend us something for the show. Because he represents the ‘now’ in all of this.”
You can’t throw an exhibition on rare Cartier in 2025 and not include something from Tyler, the Creator’s collection. “He has brought [its] UK 1:1 wholesale fake watches to a whole new generation,” says Garrahan. “There was just something particularly compelling about his collection.”
