Cartier

Cartier was founded in 1847 in Paris by Louis-François Cartier when he took over the workshop of his master, Adolphe Picard. The brand's defining era began under Louis's grandson Louis-François II, who in 1899 moved the maison to 13 Rue de la Paix — the address where Cartier Paris remains today. The brand became the official jeweler of European royalty (the British, Russian, Spanish, Belgian, Italian, and Portuguese royal houses all granted Cartier royal warrants), earning King Edward VII's famous endorsement: 'the jeweler of kings, the king of jewelers'. The Cartier vocabulary is anchored to several twentieth-century inventions: the Santos watch (1904, designed for aviator Alberto Santos-Dumont, generally considered the first modern men's wristwatch), the Tank watch (1917, designed during WWI and inspired by the Renault FT tank), the Love Bracelet (1969, the locked-on cuff designed by Aldo Cipullo), the Trinity Ring (1924), and a deep portfolio of Panthère and Tutti Frutti jewellery. Cartier high jewellery remains hand-produced at the Place Vendôme atelier. Cartier has been owned by Compagnie Financière Richemont (the Swiss luxury conglomerate) since 1988. The brand is Richemont's largest and most profitable house, with revenue in the €10B range. Around 270 Cartier boutiques operate globally; the Paris Rue de la Paix flagship is preserved as a heritage building. Few jewellery houses have maintained such an unbroken connection to their nineteenth-century origins while operating at contemporary luxury scale.