| What do you collect? | Clothing + Fashion | Jewelry + Watches | Pottery + Glass | Furniture + Home | Art + Photos | Music + Movies | Toys + Games | Sports | Coins + Stamps | Paper + Books | Ads + Signs | Autos + Transport | Eras + Decades | All » |
Cartier was founded in 1847 when Louis-François Cartier, then an apprentice to Parisian jeweler Adolphe Picard, took over the business when his master passed away. By 1853, young Louis-François had become a favorite of Napoleon III’s cousin Princess Mathilde, who helped Cartier gain entry to Parisian society.
For the next quarter century, Cartier was strictly a jeweler, but in 1874, Louis-François’s son Alfred gained the company’s reins. He in turn brought his sons, Louis, Pierre, and Jacques, into the firm—it was this third generation of Cartiers that would make the Paris jeweler’s name synonymous with luxury wristwatches...
The first Cartier wristwatches were diamond-studded bracelets for ladies, which were introduced in 1888 and languished until Parisian fashions changed enough in the mid-1890s to encourage the adornment of a bare wrist with a watch.
But the real wristwatch breakthrough came in 1904, when, according to Cartier lore, a Brazilian aviation pioneer named Alberto Santos-Dumont complained to his friend Louis Cartier of the shortcomings of fumbling with a pocket watch on a short test flight. Cartier made his friend a flat, square wristwatch called, appropriately, the Santos. In the process, Cartier popularized wristwatches in France and throughout the world.
In 1912, Cartier introduced the oval Baignoire and tortoise-shell shaped Tortue models, followed in 1917 by Cartier’s most famous early wristwatch, the Tank, which was reportedly inspired by the design of Renault tanks used during World War I. Rudolph Valentino wore a Tank in the 1921 silent classic The Sheik.
In the early 1920s, Cartier partnered with fellow Frenchmen Jaeger and Breguet to produce movements for its watches. Other illustrious Cartier collaborators included Swiss makers Vacheron Constantin, Patek Phillipe, and Audemars Piguet.
During the 1920s, Cartier started stamping its watches with four-digit reference numbers—today, knowledgeable collectors know to look for and verify these codes before purchasing an antique Cartier wristwatch. That way, they can tell for certain if the 1932 waterproof Pasha (made for the Pasha of Marrakesh) that they are about to purchase is real or a fake.
By 1940, Cartier had introduced a motoring watch, with a curved shape that was designed to be worn on the inside of the wrist—the winder was on the back of the watch, against the wearer’s skin, rather than the side. And then, in 1942, after the death of Louis Cartier, the company began several decades of stagnation.
Countless variations of the Tank appeared (in the Chinoise, horizontal bars at the top and bottom of the dial rest on the Tank’s vertical "treads"), and in 1965 there was even a watch whose body was shaped like a parallelogram. But it was not until the Must de Cartier in 1976 and the reissue of the Santos in 1978 that the firm was able to reestablish itself as a player on the wristwatch scene.
See all 11 Wristwatches events

I got interested in pocket watches from working on mechanical things. I had an old car, and working on it gave me i… [more]

I started with pocket watches as a child, watching old movies on television, watching the cowboys occasionally pull… [more]

I grew up outside of Philadelphia. I didn’t have any particular interest in clocks or watches as a kid; that came a… [more]

Steve Waddington’s vintage Omega watch site, featuring in-depth pages on models like Omega’s Pilot Line, Chrono… [read review or visit site]

Jeffrey Stein's great reference site on Heuer chronographs and dashboard timepieces. This site offers everything yo… [read review or visit site]

Paul Schliesser's elegant site offers a comprehensive history of the Gruen Watch Company of Ohio. The easy-to-navig… [read review or visit site]

Rob Berkavicius' labor of love for Accutrons and Accutron technical information contains extraordinarily detailed d… [read review or visit site]

This website, from the Patek Philippe Museum in Geneva, gives visitors a satisfying glimpse into the world of watch… [read review or visit site]

This virtual museum, created by the National Association of Watch and Clock Collectors, lets you stroll through tim… [read review or visit site]

This gallery of hundreds of LCD and calculator watches from the 1980s includes nerd-friendly brands like Casio, Sei… [read review or visit site]
Got a site to suggest? Let us know.
Are we missing one? Tell us.
25 watchers19 watchersSource: Google News
By Scheherazade Daneshkhu Luigi Macaluso, chief executive of Girard-Perregaux, the Swiss watchmaker, is expecting sales to rise this year...Read more
Until the arrival of the ID One, a mechanical Cartier watch was expected to go to service every three to five years. A complete service costs between €320...Read more
Striking a nice balance between power and finesse, the Calibre de Cartier watch is exceptionally comfortable to wear. The bezel that embellishes the case...Read more
month is called the Fine Watchmaking collection. The Calibre de Cartier watch collection is equipped with the first self-winding mechanical caliber 1904 MC...Read more
Callers ask if they can afford a 1st Edition of Alice in Wonderland, a Cartier Watch. Tax Tips for the unemployed. A freelancer in a jam over failing to pay...Read more
And his Cartier watch. And those Magli shoes. ANTICIPATION: THRILLINGLY MEDIOCRE! Oh, look at that. We're eatin' oranges and makin' IDs...Read more
The Manhattan DA's Office is putting the fancy jewelry - which includes a gold Cartier watch and gold Van Cleef and Arpels earclips - up for auction Sunday...Read more
Paris Hilton probably gets amazing, extravagant gifts thrown at her all the time; a Cartier watch here, a Louis Vuitton handbag there – you know the sort of...Read more