Visual Description
The Ref. 7672 is an oval Baignoire: an 18k yellow gold case of 31 × 23 mm, longer than it is wide, with a dial signed Cartier. On the one example cataloged under this number, Oona Chaplin's watch, Sotheby's describes a numbered case with a back secured by four screws, a movement signed Jaeger-LeCoultre and an 18k pink gold Cartier folding buckle.
Reference Significance
The number 7672 appears only in Sotheby's catalogs and articles; searches of other auction houses and dealers for this research found no watch sold under it. Other oval Cartier Baignoires of the 1960s met in the same research are cataloged by case number alone, so the number rests on a single house until a second one prints it.
Within the Baignoire family, the 7672 sits between the London Baignoire, the oval sold by Cartier London and identified by its hallmarks, and the much longer Baignoire Allongée.
Historical Context
Sotheby's sold the Chaplin watch in December 2023 as a gift from Charlie Chaplin to his wife, Oona, with a signed letter from Bernadette Chaplin. The lot dates the watch circa 1966, and a later Sotheby's article dates the same watch circa 1960. The lot's catalog note places the official release of the Baignoire in 1957.
What to Look For
Start inside the case back. The saleroom notice on the Chaplin watch rests on the hallmarks inside the case, which mark it as a Cartier London piece, so the marks rather than the dial tell you which house sold a given oval.
Check that the movement is signed Jaeger-LeCoultre and that the case measures about 31 × 23 mm. Because the number 7672 is documented by one house only, ask any seller who uses it where the attribution comes from.
