PodcastsMay 21, 2026
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AuctionsJun 22, 2017
Jackie O’s Tank Watch Sells for $379K
A present from her brother-in-law, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis wore the engraved 18-karat gold Cartier timepiece for decades.
The front and a close-up of the back of the Cartier Tank watch owned by Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis; the engraving on the back reads: “Stas to Jackie 23 Feb. 63 2:05 am to 9:35 pm.”
New York--The Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Cartier Tank watch sold for $379,500 at Christie’s New York on Wednesday, more than triple the timepiece’s highest pre-sale estimate of $120,000.
Christie’s said bidding on the watch took three minutes and included more than a dozen individual bids.
The engraving on the back of the 18-karat gold Cartier Tank reads: “Stas to Jackie 23 Feb. 63 2:05 am to 9:35 pm,” a reference to the 50-mile walk Prince Stanislaw “Stas” Radziwill and Chuck Spalding did in Palm Beach, Florida, in February 1963.
Radziwill, who was married to Jackie’s younger sister, Lee, and Spalding, a friend of President John F. Kennedy, did the hike after Kennedy issued a challenge to the American public to walk this distance in an effort to draw attention to the need to stay physically fit.
Christie’s said the president’s inner circle of family and friends were among the first to attempt the 50-mile hike. 
The watch was sold with a painting done by Onassis for her brother-in-law commemorating the hike.
The auction house said the watch and the painting, previously unknown to the public, are “two of the most important historic artifacts to surface in recent years from the golden era of the Kennedy presidency.”
The Tank watch belonging to the former first lady was sold Wednesday at Christie’s as part of the “Rare Watches and American Icons New York” sale.
The sale totaled $10 million and was 81 percent sold by value 74 percent sold by lot.
The online portion of the auction is ongoing and continues until June 27.
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