On one hand, the experimental crystallographic data of Chang and Read and the theoretical ones of Lieberman et al. permit a physical approach of the martensitic transformation of Au–47.5% at. Cd. On the other hand, an extension to the AuCd crystallographic system of the simple micromechanical model, developed by Lexcellent et al. for CuZnAl single crystals, allows an efficient modelling of the tension-compression and pure tension tests, performed on single crystals by Nakanishi et al. in the pseudoelastic range.