Name That Car Clock: Extremely Classy Cartier Analog
In our last episode of Name That Car Clock, we admired the Jeco analog timepiece out of a 1978 Toyota Corona wagon. That was quite a clock, but it looks pretty drab next to today’s entry. This should be a pretty easy call for you students of the Malaise Era (there’s a hint), so let’s hear your best guess about year/make/model for this designer-edition clock. Answer after the jump!
1976 Lincoln Continental Mark IV
Yeah, this was an easy one, since Cartier only put their clocks— which, judging from the build quality, cost about $1.64 apiece— in Ford products during the middle 1970s. No, this one doesn’t work. I have never found a Cartier Lincoln clock that worked, and I’ve tested plenty. Be honest— what car did you think produced this clock?
Murilee Martin is the pen name of Phil Greden, a writer who has lived in Minnesota, California, Georgia and (now) Colorado. He has toiled at copywriting, technical writing, junkmail writing, fiction writing and now automotive writing. He has owned many terrible vehicles and some good ones. He spends a great deal of time in self-service junkyards. These days, he writes for publications including Autoweek, Autoblog, Hagerty, The Truth About Cars and Capital One.
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This is what I see: A plastic clock with a Frenchy name as large as the speedometer in a $12,000 car from the mid 1970s. It is a pretty clock. It might be utterly fake, but it is a pretty fake clock. It might not tell time correctly, but it is a pretty fake unreliable clock. Expecting a diamond bracelet to be a watch because you wear it on your wrist isn't logical, but a diamond bracelet is still pretty, whether it can tell you the time, or not. To place such an unrealiable fake bauble as large as the speedometer in any car demonstrates to me a big need to make a statement. And that statement is... This vehicle is so luxurious you don't have to know anything more than when to have your filling station attendant refill your tank, and how fast your luxurious car is traveling. This left room on the instrument panel for this elegant and useless clock designed by a fashion house with an expensive French sounding name. If you must depend upon it telling you the correct time, then you obviously don't fully appreciate the elegant statement this luxury car makes. Time doesn't matter when you are the center of the universe, right?
Well, I didn't recognize it. But I did remember an article I read on the design and possible repair of Lincoln-Cartier clocks, here it is: http://goingincirclez.com/Garage/CrapCartierClock