ABOUT CARTIER

Cartier, for the kings, but for the soldiers as well.

Cartier is the first jewelry brand in the world and specializes in making luxurious jewels, using only the finest materials, for over a century. Cartier has always had very exclusive customers. A lot of them were - and still are - celebrities and royals. The British king Edward VII referred to Cartier as ‘the jeweler of kings and the king of jewelers, and Marylin Monroe sung ‘Cartier!’ in the movie Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.

The French house of jewelers is established in 1847, but was only to receive it’s fame after 1904. This is when Louis Cartier launched the first wristwatch for men. This wristwatch was made commissioned by and named after aviation pioneer Alberto Santos-Dumont. He wished to be able to see the time during a flight. Before Cartier’s design for this watch, Santos-Dumont used a pocket watch, like all the other pilots. This invention was revolutionary, the wristwatch for men is born.

Today still the Santos is being made and different styles are available, aswel in the shape of a watch, as glasses. 

Thirteen years later Louis Cartier received a new great order from the French army. He was asked to design a wristwatch for soldiers. A pocket watch wasn’t handy and the Santos was too big. So Louis Cartier went on and designed a smaller watch, cut from one piece of steel, which made it not only suitable to wear in trenches, but also much stronger. The Tank is born and manufactured in 1918. This specific model is just as timeless as the Santos and from the day it was born it reflects courage and heroism.

The design of the Cartier frames is based on the timeless and functional shapes of the classic Cartier watches. For example the Cartier Santos frames which show the distinctive screws on the bridge and temples of the glasses. Than ofcourse there is the Cartier Louis that is characterized by three lines of gold, the middle one being white gold. 

During the early eighties mostly all frames were characterized by one of these two styles. Later on the Panthere, Siganture C, le must de Cartier and many others were added.

 In addittion to these wonderful styles Cartier also has some classic golden, platinum or even bubinga wooden frames. These to are very luxurious products of the finest quality. 

Cartier recently released new frames which are largely based on the vintage frames. This shows how timeless, innovative and fashionable the vintage Cartier frames are.

The latest Cartier frames all share shapes and colors with the vintage frames. It is a beautiful thing to see how these shapes and colors refer to the vintage frames, but there is nothing like the real deal, the original Cartier vintage frames from the eighties and nineties!