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Cartier SA is a luxury watch manufacturer and jeweller located in Paris, France. The family business was launched in 1847 in Paris by Louis-Françoise Cartier. During the following decades, his son Alfred Cartier and later his nephews Pierre, Jacques and Louis developed Cartier to a well-known worldwide brand.

“Santos” – the first wristwatch ever was built by Louis Cartier

The breakthrough of the brand Cartier occurred in 1904, when Louis made a flat wristwatch for Alberto Santos-Dumont, a Brazilian pilot and friend of the family. The watch was called “Santos” and made history as Cartiers 1st man’s wristwatch – and the first wristwatch ever. Their clients have been very pleased as well with the practical product.

Louis was responsible for lots of the renowned and favorable designs of the company. He produced the so called “mystery clocks”, for instance. These watches have a transparent dial and their clockworks are hidden. Another splendid creation of Louis was an funny wristwatch including multicoloured jewels called “Tutti Frutti”.

The Cartier Tank watch has nowadays more than thirty variations

Already in 1907, Cartier was rapidly evolving and had subsidiaries in St. Petersburg, London and New York. The company was evolving into one of the world’s most successful wrist watch companies. A special highlight in the history of Cartier was a waterproof wrist watch made in the main for the Pasha of Marrakesh in 1932. Fifteen years earlier, Louis designed the “Cartier Tank watch”. This wristwatch is still the most noted clock of the company and has nowadays more than thirty variations.

At this time, the company started printing reference numbers on the bottom of the wrist 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 whole business.

A new concept – “Les Must de Cartier”

The new owners – a group of different investors – started to design new products that should keep the quality of Cartiers wristwatches in the past. The new concept was named “Les Must de Cartier (Cartier – it is a must!)”. Nowadays, Bernard Fornas is the chief executive officer (CEO) of Cartier. The headquarter of the company is still placed in Paris, France. Cartier is regarded as the no. two vendor of luxurious watches behind Rolex. In addition to that, Cartier is the worldwide no. one seller of luxurious jewels. Buy Men Wristwatch online