Bringing the present to life without betraying the past is a balancing act often attempted by long-established watch brands, torn between glorifying their history and rushing headlong into the future. Striking a very subtle balance, Cartier blazes its own trail and approaches the exploration of its heritage with a languid blend of respect, responsibility and light touches. It is as if its famous style signature 'form' (special-shaped) watches often combined with jewelry expertise were enough to eternally revive 20th century classics such as the Santos, Tank, Baignoire, Panthère... There are countless icons in Cartier's watchmaking repertoire, essential collections that the Maison enriches without ever tarnishing their historical aura.
The Thrill of Transformation
At Cartier, time is transformed and enhanced through multiple creative metamorphoses," says Arnaud Carrez, Cartier's Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer. Does this mean that absolutely nothing in the Maison's creative process is set in stone by virtue of its heritage? "As a watchmaker of shapes, Cartier reinvents its rich heritage of signatures and reinterprets its stylistic codes with ever greater creativity and virtuosity," says President and CEO Louis Ferla. The answer is clear, backed up by new products for 2025 that speak for themselves, starting with the watches unveiled in the spring during Watches and Wonders Geneva. According to Arnaud Carrez: "Material is transfigured and brought to life by the Maison's watchmakers and jewelers in creating a fascinating face-to-face encounter between the panther and a precious watch – as well as transformations of the Maison's great watchmaking classics, whose inventiveness Cartier continues to perpetuate. I'm notably thinking of the Panthère watch, which has undergone a spectacular jewelry makeover – and of course the Tank à Guichets watch from 1928, for which we specially developed the 9755 MC movement.
In 2018, under the impetus of its former CEO Cyrille Vigneron, Cartier began a major strategic shift by slowing down the development of spectacular Haute Horlogerie movements and redirecting the spotlight to watch collections inherited from Louis Cartier. The Santos watch that he designed in 1904 for his friend Alberto Santos-Dumont; the Tank, created at the end of the following decade and reinvented in multiple variations throughout the last century; the Tortue, the Baignoire and the Panthère watch have all made successful comebacks. What do these multifaceted collections have in common? An instantly recognizable style vocabulary. "I always say that Cartier is a signature in a single stroke," emphasizes Watches & Jewelry Creative Director Marie-Laure Cérède. "When we approve a design internally, that means everyone's first reaction on seeing it has to have been: 'That's Cartier!"
A Signature in a Single Stroke
Thus, even draped in precious stones forming a zebra pattern, the Panthère watch remains true to itself. The same goes for the Tank à Guichets relaunched this year, which retains almost every feature of the 1928 model, with the addition of a new movement and a modern touch. The same goes for the enlarged version of the Tank Louis Cartier and the Tank Américaine – whose lines first designed in 1988 have recently been revisited in a special 120-piece edition with a hint of Art Deco. "The Maison's creative logic always involves the quest for new shapes," explains Image, Style & Heritage Director Pierre Rainero. For Cartier, the strength of a design lies in its originality, as well as in its ability to stand out from that which already exists and to offer possible subsequent variations. All of which suggests exciting future variations on the same theme, as well as creative "sidesteps," such as the Cartier Libre models or the Tressage watch presented in the spring. Whatever the shape or geometry, they all bear the same unique signature that makes us all say: "That's Cartier!"
