Ballon Bleu: 42mm or 36mm?

<p>Set the 42mm Ballon Bleu against the 36mm and the resale story splits before you've even picked a dial.</p><p>The 42mm steel automatic is the one most people picture — the fat blue cabochon, the sword hands, the case that bulges at the crown guard. It has presence and it photographs beautifully, but it's also the size Cartier produced in the largest volume, which keeps used supply deep and resale soft. You buy it cheap secondhand, and you sell it cheap.</p><p>Drop to the 36mm and the smaller quartz versions and the buyer pool widens. They hold a higher percentage of a lower sticker, partly because they read as unisex and pull from both wrists. A two-tone case or a Roman-numeral guilloche dial in the mid-size clears faster and firmer than a plain steel 42mm through most secondary channels. Chronograph and complication versions muddy the picture, but for a plain time-and-date the size question drives resale more than any other single factor.</p><p>Who each is for is really a question of intent. The 42mm suits a buyer who wants a statement automatic and has no plan to sell — treat the depreciation as rent on wearing it. The mid-size suits someone who wants the Cartier design language with a softer resale hit and easier liquidity when they move it on.</p><p>The honest tie-breaker: precious metal and two-tone hold value, plain steel does not. Buying to keep, the 42mm gives you more watch and you'll never think about the exit. Buying with any chance of flipping, the smaller and richer configurations protect more of your money. Cartier is bought for design first, so don't expect a steel Ballon Bleu to behave like a steel sports Rolex on the way out.</p>