The Tortue is a watch you choose for the shape of it. Louis Cartier named it after a tortoise — a soft, rounded case that curves to the wrist and asks nothing of the room it walks into. It is the quiet opposite of a sports watch: a piece a lady wears because it feels like her, not because anyone needs to recognise it. As of July 2026, a plain-gold Tortue starts at around £9,500 pre-owned, and the rare monopusher chronographs run into the tens of thousands.
What makes the Cartier Tortue different?
Introduced in 1912, the Tortue was Cartier‘s third shaped watch, after the Santos and the Tonneau, at a moment when almost every watch was round. Its barrel-shaped, curved case is the whole point — worn flat against the wrist, it reads as jewellery first and instrument second. There has never been a mainstream steel Tortue; it has always been a precious-metal dress watch, most often in yellow, rose or white gold, sometimes set with diamonds. That is worth knowing before you shop: if a “steel Tortue” appears, treat it with caution rather than as a bargain.
How much is a pre-owned Cartier Tortue worth?
These are wider open-market guide ranges in GBP, as of July 2026, drawn from dealer asking prices — not sold figures, and not Chrono6538’s prices. They are also not evenly supplied: the Tortue is a low-volume watch, so individual asking prices swing widely on box, papers, diamond count and condition. Read them as ranges.
| Configuration | Guide asking range (GBP, Jul 2026) | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Small model, plain gold (WG/YG/RG), time-only | from ~£9,500 | Entry floor: older ref, worn, no box or papers, private sale. Clean dealer stock ~£11,000–£13,000. |
| Diamond-set gold, small/medium | ~£9,500 – £16,000 | Bezel or case set with diamonds; price tracks stone count. |
| Diamond-set gold, heavier stone-set or bracelet | ~£16,000 – £28,000 | Wide spread by condition and papers. |
| Tortue XL, plain gold (e.g. W1556234) | ~£11,500 – £16,000 | The larger case; limited editions ask far more. |
| Tortue Monopoussoir chronograph, CPCP (refs 2356 / 2396) | ~£30,000 – £40,000 | Single-pusher chronograph from the Collection Privée era — the connoisseur’s Tortue. |
| Vintage grand complications (e.g. minute repeater 2512C) | Auction-only | Too thin to price from listings; these surface at auction in the six figures. |
An older small-model Tortue in a plain gold case — a white-gold WGTO0003, say — worn, without box or papers on the private market, starts at around £9,500. A clean dealer example with its paperwork sits closer to £11,000–£13,000.
Which Tortue should you choose?
For most ladies the answer is the small or medium time-only model in gold: slim, endlessly wearable, and the most honest value in the range. If you want the diamonds to do more, the gem-set gold pieces (references such as WA501008 and WA503751) climb quickly with stone count. The Tortue XL is the one to reach for if you like a larger, more architectural case on the wrist.
The collector’s Tortue is the Monopoussoir chronograph, revived in 1998 as part of the Collection Privée Cartier Paris. Its single-pusher chronograph movement was developed with the workshop that later became De Bethune, and clean examples now ask £30,000–£40,000.
Is the Cartier Tortue rare?
Rarer than a Tank, certainly. The case has always been made in small numbers, and it has a quietly serious history: the Tortue housed some of Cartier’s earliest complications, including a monopusher chronograph and a minute repeater in the late 1920s. A 1928 Tortue minute repeater sold for CHF 993,500 at Antiquorum in 2002 — a record for a Cartier wristwatch at the time. Cartier returned to the design again in 2024 with a new hand-wound Privé Tortue, which is why current retail and the older CPCP pieces now sit close together.
Buying a pre-owned Tortue with confidence
Because the Tortue trades in small numbers, condition and paperwork matter more than usual, and asking prices sit above what a piece actually changes hands for. Chrono6538 sells authenticated, checked and guaranteed pieces at a premium to the bare private-market floor — the reassurance being that the watch is exactly what it says it is, and yours to love without a second thought. If you are drawn to the shape, it is worth waiting for the right one.
See pre-owned Cartier at Chrono6538 →
Guide values from Chrono6538’s reading of the wider pre-owned market as of July 2026; asking prices, not sold prices. Not investment advice — values can fall as well as rise.