It’s humorous how the pendulum swings. For many years, watch purists refused to take Cartier severely. To them, it was a jeweller dabbling in timekeeping. Masters of design, positive, however not a real watchmaker. Whereas Cartier’s items have been undeniably elegant, they have been usually powered by third-party actions and constructed with aesthetics, not engineering, in thoughts.
That didn’t sit nicely with traditionalists. These have been the Patek Philippe, Vacheron Constantin, and Audemars Piguet crowd; the sort who valued heritage, in-house calibres, and mechanical complexity above all else. For them, watchmaking was about what ticked inside. Cartier, in distinction, was innovating design and watchmaking aesthetics.
Cartier Was Only a Jeweller
Cartier’s fame as a maison de luxe identified for diamond-encrusted style watches didn’t assist both. They have been stunning objects and vastly standard with fashion-forward circles, however traditionalists would solely ever see them as dainty gold watches with quartz actions, which through the 70s and 80s was a demise knell for mechanical credibility.
That’s as a result of quartz watches have been low cost, mass-produced, and related to the so-called “Quartz Disaster,” which practically destroyed the Swiss mechanical watch trade. Cartier embraced it and bought nicely, doing so. However to purists, this was borderline sacrilege.
The collector tradition again then was additionally extraordinarily insular. It favoured discreet wealth and technical mastery. There was a sure snobbery to it. Cartier, with its Parisian aptitude, celeb clientele, and jewellery-first legacy, was seen as too glamorous, too business, too “style.”
So whereas this French luxurious Maison was wildly profitable and culturally influential, worn by everybody from Andy Warhol to Princess Diana, it wasn’t taken severely by the mechanical watch group. It was admired, even beloved, however not often revered in the best way “true” manufactures have been.
Now, Cartier is One of many Hottest Watch Manufacturers within the World
Quick ahead to 2025, and the narrative has flipped. After a string of showstopping releases at Watches & Wonders, from refined Tank Louis reissues to high-complication Privé Tank à Guichets items, Cartier is now firmly again within the dialog. Not simply as a design icon, however as probably the most fascinating names in fashionable watchmaking.
Cartier’s severe shift in direction of excessive watchmaking started within the early 2000s when Carole Forestier-Kasapi was appointed Head of Motion Creation. A technical genius and former winner of the distinguished Prix Gaia, Forestier-Kasapi was already identified within the trade for her progressive work at Ulysse Nardin and later at Manufacture Horlogère de la Vallée de Joux (which developed actions for manufacturers like Audemars Piguet and TAG Heuer). Cartier introduced her in with a transparent temporary: elevate the model’s horological credibility from the within out.
After launching its Superb Watchmaking division, Cartier started creating correct in-house actions at scale, notably at its manufacture in La Chaux-de-Fonds, creating all the things from skeletonised calibres and tourbillons to progressive ideas just like the ID One and ID Two.
Then got here the relaunch of the Cartier Privé assortment in 2015, which turned out to be a pivotal transfer in Cartier’s up to date historical past. This collection quietly focused collectors within the know, revisiting historic case shapes just like the Tank Cintrée, Tonneau and Cloche, and pairing them with high-end mechanical actions. They have been elegant, devoted reissues designed to win over the very purists who had as soon as dismissed the model.
By the 2020s, this slow-burn technique started paying off: Cartier was now not only a jeweller with a watch division. Heads have been turning for the full-fledged manufacture with historic clout, collector credibility, and a design language that nobody may contact.
Watches & Wonders in 2022, 2023, and particularly 2024 and 2025 noticed Cartier steal the present. Re-releases of the model’s most celebrated icons would propel this historic model to the highest of everybody’s grail checklist, guaranteeing Cartier would cement its legacy as a grasp of design and, now, lastly, a darling of purists. It seems, the Maison that after obtained written off as fashion over substance may need been enjoying the lengthy sport all alongside.
