Cartier SA is a luxury watch producer and jewelry maker placed in Paris, France. The family business was founded in 1847 in Paris by Louis-Françoise Cartier. During the next decades, his son Alfred Cartier and afterwards his nephews Pierre, Jacques and Louis developed Cartier to a famous international brand.

“Santos” – the 1st wristwatch ever was constructed by Louis Cartier

The break through of the brand Cartier occurred in 1904, when Louis made a tiny timepiece for Alberto Santos-Dumont, a Brazilian airman and acquaintance of the family. The watch was named “Santos” and made history as Cartiers 1st man’s wristwatch – and the first wrist watch of all time. Their guests have been really pleased as well with the practical product.

Louis was responsible for lots of the renowned and successful designs of the brand. He made the so named “mystery clocks”, for instance. These wrist watches have a transparent dial and their clockworks are hidden. Another exquisite innovation of Louis was an funny watch including multicoloured jewels called “Tutti Frutti”.

The Cartier Tank watch 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 developing into one of the world’s most successful wristwatch brands. A special highlight in the history of Cartier was a waterproof watch produced in the main for the Pasha of Marrakesh in 1932. Fifteen years earlier, Louis developed the “Cartier Tank watch”. This wrist watch is still the most well-known clock of the company and has nowadays more than thirty variations.

At this time, the company began printing reference numbers on the bottom of the wristwatches. The presence of these “four-digit-codes” is proving the watches’ originality. The company kept growing 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 owners – a group of different investors – began to design different products that should keep the quality of Cartiers wristwatches 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 located in Paris, France. Cartier is regarded as the no. two vendor of luxurious watches behind Rolex. In addition to that, Cartier is the international no. one seller of luxurious jewels. Men’s watches