How Cartier Became the Defining Watchmaker of the 2020s

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As far as I’m concerned, Cartier is the most fascinating watch brand of the 2020s. Over the course of the decade, the Parisian jeweler has become the second-biggest watch manufacturer by revenue in Switzerland, according to Morgan Stanley’s annual industry report. The brand has been referred to as Gen Z’s Rolex, a crown I believe fits well. And it continues to have the same iron-clad grip on celebrities—including VVVVVVVIPs like Taylor Swift—that it’s held throughout its history.

But what I find most compelling is what Cartier’s rise signals about the state of the industry. As collectors both new and seasoned began to pivot their interests from high-powered sport watches to more design-centric pieces, Cartier was ready and waiting for them with the most interesting catalog of weirdo-shaped tickers in existence. It’s a shift that the house’s chief marketing officer, Arnaud Carrez, saw coming in the middle of the last decade.

Last week, at Watches and Wonders in Geneva, I sat down with Carrez to discuss how the brand lost its way in the early 2010s, found its footing again, and became the most powerful watchmaker in Switzerland outside of Rolex.

GQ: What’s your favorite of the new releases?

Carrez: I think the Santos Dumont with the gold bracelet and the ghost dial.

People have been going crazy for that one.

I have a lot of good memories associated with the Santos, from when we relaunched the collection at an event in 2018. The year before that, we relaunched the Panthère watch in LA.

2017 was pretty much the restart of Cartier watches. About 10 years ago, there was a bit of a downturn for watches. Cartier watches were a bit challenged, and we had to work on the identity and watchmaking. That’s when we started to define Cartier as the watchmaker of shapes—the king of elegant, refined watches. And the Panthère watch was the Trojan Horse of this message, because it’s both a watch and a piece of jewelry. So it symbolized everything we wanted to convey in terms of all the differences in the watch market.

How did that identity get lost?

I think in the previous years, we explored too many ideas that were not consistent with our image. For example, we put a lot of focus in the 2010s on developing sport watches. We put a lot of focus on complicated watches, but sometimes with no Cartier signature.

We invested a lot on men’s sport and complicated watches and we lost a bit of ground with women. There was a need to rebalance efforts to clarify the so-called playground for Cartier watchmaking. And that’s when we said Cartier is the watchmaker of shapes.

We have multiple territories of expression, but at the same time, there are some things we don’t want to do. Sport is not part of our territories of expression. We don’t have sport watches, and that’s fine. And when it comes to complications, everything should start with the design, and the techniques should serve the design. That means we don’t take movements and design watches around the movement. We design beautiful objects and everything has to be done to design and develop movements that fit under the case.

Like the Crash.