Cartier: Jewellery or Haute Horlogerie?

Cartier is a definite mixture of jewelry and fine watchmaking. Their styles change every year but they do have some classic looks. I agree on the Balon Bleu, it is stunning. I especially like the rose gold version. As for their movements: They do a good job of finishing the ETA movements and a poor jon of regulating them. Your watchmaker can fix the timing issue but they probably can’t get parts. Their high end models like the BB Tourbillon and the 42mm pasha use LeCoultre movements. For style these are great watches but the service leaves much to be desired. I like a watch company that supports their product and the qualified watchmakers who work on them.

To me Cartier is an indisputeble part of watchhistory. They where one of the first to produce a wristwatch and have legendary designs like the Tank and Santos that are just as recognizable as the Royal Oak, Nautilus or Datejust.

Regarding the price-range in which they sell the majority of there watches I dont see any difference with other famous brands. Omega, IWC, Breitling, Chopard etc. all use ETA-based movements. But some Pasha models even use movements from Girard-Perregaux and Frederic Piguet, just as Cartier’s topline the Collection Priv?ɬ©e. All together I dont think that there is that much difference between Cartier and other major Swiss watch manufacturers. Maybe it was the Must-series that let the brand escape from the eye of most watchenthousiasts, along with there marketingstrategy which brings a broad arrey of luxury products of which watches is only a part.

Cartier watches can be seen as jewellery and as haute horlogerie. In the past the brand was rmore famous for it’s jewellery watches, but when in 1998 the high end series Collection Priv?ɬ©?ɬ© was introduced the brand established itself as a very serious watchmaker.

The collection was based on historic models like the Santos Dumont, LC Tank,Tortue, Tonneau and LC Ronde and the watches had handwound movements by Piaget, JLC and Fredric Piguet. Cartier is even going a step further with the release of the Ballon Bleu Flying Tourbillon.

@Peter
The BB Flying Tourbillon has an inhouse movement, not a JLC like the Pasha 42 Cartier bought the watch making section of Rogier Dubuis in 2007, so their capacity is quite strong.

I wonder why you said: “the service leaves much to be desired” Cartier is part of the Richemont Group and they have a huge service center in Amsterdam, with very qualified watchmakers. And in case there really is a problem, that can’t be fixed, the watch is send to Swiss. You don’t need to like the brand, but their technical service is excellent.

there is no problem with high-end brands using ETA movements, provided they are priced accordingly. however, most brands do not price reasonably but instead charges a premium.  example, Guess, Kenneth Cole, Armani Exchange have the same ETA movement in their watches compared to cartier, panerai, IWC, etc but the former category goes for 1/10 the price. granted, if IWC and  the like modify the ETA movements (they do on their higher-end series), then charges the premium, that would at least be acceptable and understandable. however, most high-end brands’ lower-end series do not do so and yet charges outrageous prices.