The Pasha de Cartier is one of the boldest watches the maison has ever produced, and its modern story belongs firmly to the 1980s. Cartier folklore traces the name to the early 1930s, when the Pasha of Marrakech, Thami El Glaoui, is said to have asked Louis Cartier for an elegant yet water-resistant watch he could wear while swimming. Whether that original timepiece was ever delivered remains unproven; what truly links the legend to the modern watch is the name, which Cartier presents as a tribute rather than a reissue. The Pasha as collectors know it today was created decades later, in 1985.
The modern Pasha was designed by Gerald Genta, the celebrated creator of the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak and the Patek Philippe Nautilus. Working with Cartier under CEO Alain Dominique Perrin, Genta delivered a watch unlike anything else in the catalogue: a round case rather than Cartier's signature square and rectangular forms, a large-for-its-era 38mm diameter, and 100m of water resistance. He balanced these innovations with unmistakable Cartier signatures, including Vendome lugs and a screw-down crown cover topped with a sapphire cabochon and secured by a delicate retaining chain. The dial was equally distinctive, placing a square minute track over a round face framed by four oversized Arabic numerals at 12, 3, 6 and 9. The first examples, from 1985, were exclusively yellow gold and made in small numbers, such as the founding reference 820901.
The Pasha fit the exuberant spirit of its decade and quickly grew into one of Cartier's most varied collections. Through the 1990s and 2000s it expanded into steel, the more accessible 35mm Pasha C such as the 2324, full-size automatics like the guilloche-dial 2378, chronographs, perpetual calendars, GMTs, the eccentric Pasha Golf, and the sporty Seatimer diver such as the W31077U2. In keeping with Cartier's habit of resting popular models and reviving them, the Pasha was discontinued and then dramatically relaunched at Watches and Wonders 2020 in 41mm and 35mm sizes, powered by the in-house caliber 1847 MC, with QuickSwitch interchangeable straps and the SmartLink bracelet. Key reissue references include the steel WSPA0009, the yellow-gold WGPA0007 and the 35mm WSPA0013. Collectors value the Pasha for its singular Genta design language, its strong 1980s identity, and the breadth of sizes, metals and complications across its history.
Bedesten Watches has sold authentic Cartier watches in Istanbul since 1999. From our family-run showroom in Suadiye, Kadikoy, we buy, sell and appraise the Pasha de Cartier across vintage and modern references. Visit us in Suadiye or message us on WhatsApp +90 532 327 88 26 for current stock and pricing; prices are on request and we accept TRY, USD and EUR.