Jewellery designs by Cartier still cast the same spell over us as they have since the house of Cartier was formed in 1847.
Suppliers of fine jewellery to the rich, titled, royal, famous and infamous since they first opened their doors, Cartier has an illustrious history that includes inventing the wristwatch, supplying bespoke jewellery to all the royal houses of Europe, being the first to use the Art Deco style in jewellery, going head to head with Fabergé in the court of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia and creating their own Cartier Imperial Egg and generally dazzling the world with the innovative and creative jewellery and watch designs ever since.
The invention of the wristwatch came about when, in 1904, the Brazilian pioneer aviator, Alberto Santos-Dumont complained to his friend, Louis Cartier of the unreliability and impracticality of using pocket watches while flying. Cartier designed a flat wristwatch with a distinctive square bezel and so the ‘Santos’ was born. By1907 Cartier had branches in London, New York and St. Petersburg and was quickly becoming one of the most successful watch companies in the world. The Baignoire and Tortue models (both of which are still in production today) were introduced in 1912, followed by the Tank model in 1917. This, also designed by Louis Cartier, was inspired from the newly introduced tanks on the Western Front. This line too has survived, with over thirty varieties made since.
Cartier are perhaps most famous however for their incredible jewellery, particularly the ‘Bestiary’ collection – best illustrated by the Panthère brooch of the 1940s created for Wallis Simpson.
Today, Cartier continues to reflect its heritage in the current Panthère collections and although they no longer have the dramatic impact of their ground-breaking predecessors, these pieces are quite breathtaking in their own right.
What Cartier has done since inception is provide the opportunity for women with the desire to stand out from the crowd to purchase, or have made bespoke, stand-out jewellery. Always ahead of the curve, Cartier is synonymous with style, elegance and sheer, unadulterated beauty,
