Designer Yoon Ahn spotted wearing a Cartier

Yoon Ahn, the Seoul-born, Tokyo-based designer behind cult jewelry label Ambush and creative director for Dior Men's accessories, was recently spotted wearing one of Cartier's most coveted limited releases: the Crash in 18k white gold, set with diamonds, limited to just 267 individually numbered pieces.

The Crash's origin story is as unconventional as its silhouette. Legend holds that a Cartier Baignoire Allongée belonging to a London Cartier executive was recovered from a car crash in 1967, its case warped beyond recognition into an asymmetric, almost molten form. Rather than discard it, Cartier's London atelier turned the accident into a design, and the Crash was born. The Salvador Dalí parallel is inescapable — the melting clocks of 'The Persistence of Memory' occupy the same visual grammar — and Cartier has leaned into that surrealist heritage with every subsequent Crash release.

This particular reference is set with 150 brilliant-cut diamonds across its bezel, with an additional brilliant-cut diamond crowning the winding crown, for a combined 2.16 carats of stones. The case is 18k white gold, and the silvered opaline dial carries a sunray-brushed finish with Roman numerals that have been individually adapted and stretched to follow the distorted case geometry — a detail that rewards close inspection. Blued-steel hands provide contrast against the pale dial. The bracelet employs Cartier's distinctive quilted Maillon Panthère link construction in matching white gold.

For collectors, the Crash sits at the intersection of Cartier's haute joaillerie heritage and its watchmaking identity — a piece that functions as much as a wearable sculpture as a timepiece. The 267-piece limitation gives it genuine scarcity, and the diamond-set white gold variant consistently outperforms its yellow and rose gold counterparts on the secondary market.

Yoon Ahn's affinity for the piece is entirely coherent. Her design language at Ambush — oversized hardware, luxury material manipulation, references to subculture — maps directly onto what the Crash represents within fine watchmaking: a deliberate refusal of convention. At an $82,500 retail price, this is a watch for someone who understands exactly what they are wearing.