The Beatles and Their Watches - Part III: Cartier & Breitling
Interestingly, in November 1966 the Beatles’ manager, Brian Epstein, appears to have bought himself and George Harrison matching (or almost matching) Cartier Baignoire wrist watches. Although marketed as a lady’s watch, both dapper chaps wore the pieces regularly with much style and aplomb. Epstein’s sold at Southeby’s in October 2020 for $39,000 (the same auction at which Lennon’s famous round spectacles sold for $56,800).
Both George Harrison and Paul McCartney (and possibly Ringo Starr) appear to have moved on to wear Cartier Tank’s at some point, although there is a fellow online who claims that Harrison’s watch was an Elgin and he has it!
https://thetruthaboutwatches.com/2021/01/george-harrisons-watch/
Finally, I would be remiss if I did not mention the Beatles’ producer (and arguably the true fifth Beatle) George Martin who was photographed wearing a MuDu (a shortening of the names Muller and Durbach from Geneva and possibly a secondary brand of Blancpain). Chronopedia reports that MuDu watches may have been illegal knock offs that were smuggled into England to avoid high post-War duties and sold in pubs and other “unofficial” outlets.
Martin was more commonly associated with his Breitling Top Time 2002 which he seems to have worn from about the mid 1960s until his death in 2016. He wore both the MuDu and the Breitling either with the dial on the top or bottom of his wrist. He is seen in photographs doing both.
That's it for online sleuthing for today. I hope you enjoyed some of these wrist watches. If you have more accurate information about these or other watches worn by the Beatles, I'd love to hear from you!
In a later post I will take you through some of the extremely cool and the mostly not-very-cool-at-all official and unofficial Beatle-themed wrist watch merchandise that is out there.
There's nothing you can wind that can't be wound.
Wm. Shakespeare
The Beatles and Their Watches - Part I: The Pateks
The Beatles and Their Watches - Part II: The Accurists
The Beatles and Their Watches - Part III: Cartier & Breitling
The Beatles and Their Watches - Part IV: Ringo Starr
The Beatles and Their Watches - Part V: The Apple Watch
The Beatles and Their Watches – Part VI: Sir Paul’s Casio
The Beatles and Their Watches – Part VII: The Pocket Watches
The Beatles and Their Watches - Part VIII: Raymond Weil
The Beatles and Their Watches - Part IX: Joey Ramone's Apple Watch
The Beatles and Their Watches - Part X: Jimmie Nicol's Watch
The Beatles and Their Watches - Part XI: Yellow Submarine
The Beatles and Their Watches - Part XII: John Lennon's STOLEN Patek Found! (Updated)
All the world’s a stage we’re going through.
I love the Beatles -- never thought to analyze them from a watch perspective before though.
Really great read, Thank you! I love the background on George Martin. But Cartier is a really cool watch.
Fascinating to see the petite sizes of the watches worn in the early to mid-1960s. We always hear about the small watches from the 1930s/1940s, but less often about the small watches from the 1960s.
Just watched Under the Volcano, great documentary on the recording studio George Martin built on Caribbean island of Montserrat. Great movie