Founded in 1978 by motorcycle racer Thierry Sabine, the Paris-Dakar Rally was a legendary motor sports race of endurance, navigation and mechanical engineering, spanning some 10,000 kilometers (6,214 miles) from the French capital across the Sahara desert to Dakar, Senegal. An early sponsor of the race, Cartier and the brand’s then-president, Alain-Dominique Perrin, created the ‘Cartier Challenge’ in 1983, awarded to anyone who won the same category two years in a row.
The Cartier Challenge Trophy was a watch designed specifically for the race, inspired by the blue headscarves (‘cheich’ in French) of the nomadic Tuareg people of the Sahara. Cartier made the Cheich only for winners of the Challenge, and it was never sold to the public.
Just one person, Belgian motocross champion Gaston Rahier, ever won the trophy, winning the motorcycle race consecutively in 1984 and 1985. The Cartier Challenge ended soon after, following the death of Sabine in a helicopter crash in 1986. Of four original gold Cartier Cheich with mechanical movements believed produced, two prototypes are in Cartier’s heritage museum. An example owned by Sabine is unaccounted for and presumed lost, while Rahier’s trophy was sold at auction by Sotheby’s in 2022. It was bought by collector Eric Ku for about $1.1 million, according to GQ.