Cartier Watches
Cartier SA is a luxury wristwatch maker and jeweller located in Paris, France. The family business was established in 1847 in Paris by Louis-Françoise Cartier. During the following decades, his son Alfred Cartier and afterwards his nephews Pierre, Jacques and Louis developed Cartier to a well-known worldwide brand.
“Santos” – the 1st wristwatch ever was built by Louis Cartier
The breakthrough of the brand Cartier took place in 1904, when Louis constructed a flat timepiece for Alberto Santos-Dumont, a Brazilian aeronaut and friend of the family. The wrist watch was called “Santos” and made history as Cartiers first man’s wristwatch – and the first wrist watch of all time. Their clients have been very pleased as well with the practical timepiece.
Louis was responsible for lots of the well-known and successful designs of the company. He developed the so called “mystery clocks”, for instance. These watches have a transparent dial and their clockworks are invisible. Another amazing creation of Louis was an exotic watch including multicoloured jewels called “Tutti Frutti”.
The Cartier Tank wristwatch has today more than thirty variations
Already in 1907, Cartier was rapidly growing and had subsidiaries in St. Petersburg, London and New York. The company was evolving into one of the world’s most successful watch brands. A great highlight in the history of Cartier was a watertight wrist watch made primarily for the Pasha of Marrakesh in 1932. Fifteen years earlier, Louis developed the “Cartier Tank watch”. This timepiece is still the most famous clock of the company and has today more than thirty variations.
At this time, the company started printing reference numbers on the underside of the watches. The presence of these “four-digit-codes” is proving the watches’ originality. The company kept evolving and in 1964, Jean-Jacques, Claude and Marionne (the children of Jacques, Louis and Pierre) sold the entire business.
A new concept – “Les Must de Cartier”
The new proprietors – a group of different investors – started to design different products that should keep the quality of Cartiers watches in the past. The recent concept was named “Les Must de Cartier (Cartier – it is a must!)”. Now, Bernard Fornas is the chief executive officer (CEO) of Cartier. The headquarter of the company is still placed in Paris, France. Cartier is seen as the no. two seller of luxurious wristwatches behind Rolex. Additionally, Cartier is the international no. one seller of luxurious jewels. wrist watches
