At the highest levels of Swiss watchmaking, two brands, Rolex and Cartier, go head-to-head. While the former dominates the watch industry’s turnover — to the tune of an estimated 10.1 billion Swiss francs (about $11.3 billion) in sales last year, compared with 3.1 billion for Cartier, which placed second on Morgan Stanley’s ranking of top-performing watch brands in 2023 — the latter has an equal, if not stronger, grip on the industry’s soul.
Known as “The Watchmaker of Shapes” — a title that Cartier doubled down on last December when it staged a two-week pop-up exhibition in Miami focused on its legacy in watch design — the Paris-based, Swiss-made brand is best known for producing a long list of highly coveted, anything-but-round timepieces: the rectangular Tank, the oval-shaped Baignoire and the bent-out-of-shape Crash, to name but a few.
Beloved by the aristocracy (think of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis in her gold Cartier Tank), the brand appeals equally to the aspirational watch collector, thanks to a wide selection of styles that come in every imaginable execution, from mini-sized steel watches to lavish, gem-set, one-of-a-kind gold timepieces that look as if they belong in a museum.
“Cartier is a fantastic brand for watch newbies,” Kristen Shirley, founder of La Patiala, an online luxury encyclopedia, tells Gem + Jewel. “It’s super cool, loved by insiders and you can get a really great watch for just over $3,000 at retail — like the Tank Must in cool colors, or the mini Panthère. They have a lot of great watches for under $10,000, including ones in gold cases.”
Lovers of vintage watches, however, may have to add a zero to that figure. The brand is currently in the midst of a renaissance that began during the pandemic, when collectors rediscovered its rarest treasures.
Eric Wind, the owner of Wind Vintage in Palm Beach, Fla., attributes Cartier’s astonishing rise on the secondary market to a confluence of factors. “A lot of young people coming into wealth, especially in Asia, have been focused on Cartier as the epitome of class and elegance,” he says. “Second, there’s a lot more scholarship about these watches than there used to be. Francesca Cartier Brickell has been a really great ambassador for the brand, adding allure and prestige. And there is a bit of a treasure hunting element to the brand as well because there’s such a wide variety of watches. People have been known to find them at pawn shops for $80 and later find out they’re worth $80,000.”
Add to that list the brand’s top-notch marketing strategy — particularly when it comes to re-issuing vintage classics in contemporary executions and staging high-profile exhibitions such as the Time Unlimited pop-up in Miami — and it’s clear why the market for Cartier is on fire. Below, we offer a few tips and insights to get in on the action.
Begin With the Tank
In the modern history of “shaped” watches (i.e., any silhouette that deviates from the traditional round), the Cartier Tank is watch zero. Designed in 1917 by Louis Cartier, a grandson of Cartier’s founder, Louis-François Cartier, the original model, now known as the Tank Normale, borrowed aesthetic details from the World War I armored fighting vehicle for which it was named, including the “brancards” (or vertical bars), which represent the treads, and a case that was meant to evoke the cockpit.
Production remained low until the 1970s, meaning that older models are exceedingly rare and come with sky-high prices to match.
Just don’t confuse the original Tank with the 1920s Tank Louis, the slightly more rectangular and most recognizable form of the model, re-introduced in recent years in a range of fetching dial colors, including burgundy and green lacquer, with matching straps, all featuring the Tank’s signature beaded crown with sapphire cabochon.
Over the years, the model has spawned countless iterations, some of which, like the off-centered Tank Asymétrique (1936), have been re-issued as part of the über-exclusive Cartier Privé collection.
In short, the Tank is a universe unto itself. Take it from the vintage watch dealer Mike Nouveau: “It’s like choose your own adventure.”
Santos and Panthères, Oh My!
Before the Tank, there was the Cartier Santos. Introduced in 1904, for the Brazilian aviator Alberto Santos-Dumont, the square-shaped model with the distinctive bezel (note the exposed screws) was among the world’s first wristwatches.
Today, the Santos collection is almost as varied as the Tank. Available in a range of sizes, from petite to manly; in steel, gold, platinum and two-tone; on metal bracelets and leather straps; with or without diamonds, the model is the next logical purchase after a Tank for anyone looking to grow their Cartier collection.
For women, however, the square-cased Panthère, a 1983 introduction that celebrated the disco era, and was reintroduced in 2017, continues to grow in popularity, especially in tinier case sizes.
“Now you can get a small or medium full gold Panthère for under 20 grand,” Eddie Goziker, president of the pre-owned dealer Wrist Aficionado, says. “And I think a lot of the push has been towards these smaller petite watches for women.”
The Apogee of Feminine Style
Not for nothing are Cartier watches often considered the epitome of feminine style. From the mini gold Baignore, an oval-shaped bangle watch that caused a frenzy among tastemakers last year, to the maison’s more spectacular gem-set timepieces, the collection is rife with small, elegant wristwatches that have also, lately, appealed to male celebs strutting the red carpet (here’s looking at you, Timothée Chalamet).
“Last year was all about the bangle Baignoire,” Shirley says. “This year, a lot of the buzz went to those special animal jewelry watches, which are a lot less available but are something to aspire to. And people went crazy for the mini Tank watches, which are super small and cute.
“In watches, so many people are like, ‘We need an in-house mechanical movement,’” Shirley adds. “But with Cartier, who cares if it’s quartz? It appeals to people who might be buying their first watch and don’t necessarily want to learn about manual movements or power reserves.”
Vintage Cartier is a (Potentially Very Rewarding) Minefield
Wind emphasizes how confusing the world of vintage Cartier can be, especially when compared with a relatively straightforward brand like Rolex. “Cartier is different from other watch brands because they had three distinct branches,” he says.
“Cartier Paris is the most well-known. They made watches in the late ’70s that say Paris on the dial below 6 o’clock. That’s what people tend to think of when they think of Cartier. Tank Normales, Tank Louises, Tank Cintrées. That peak ’70s period was the heyday. By the ’80s, they switched to Swiss-made on the dials and Swiss production, and also did more quartz movements.
“Then you have Cartier London, where they made watches particularly in the ’60s and ’70s, like the Crash and their own style of Tanks with London-made cases. And then the U.S. branch, which often contracted with the Swiss. All of that is part of the confusion around what is a Cartier watch?”
Watches that were made by Cartier London are especially collectible. “If it says London on the dial, it would be $40,000 compared with a regular Tank for $10,000,” Nouveau says. “They made stuff in such minute numbers, it was basically handmade to order.”
What unites much of the firm’s past production is its rarity and desirability (save for, perhaps, the brand’s inexpensive, gold-plated 1980s Cartier Must era).
Once You’ve Mastered the Basics, It’s Time to Appreciate Cartier’s More Eccentric Side
While your chances of discovering one of the brand’s most obscure and delightful timepieces — a Pebble (literally pebble-shaped), a Coussin (usually referred to as a “Bamboo”) or the octagonal Ceinture — are diminishing every day, as interest in the brand intensifies globally, there’s no denying the inherent pleasure of the hunt.
“Some of the most expensive Cartiers are the Tank Cintrées in platinum from the 1920s, which have sold for north of half a million dollars,” Wind says. “They’re super rare and elegant, what you imagine the Great Gatsby would have worn. That’s the top of the Tank echelon. Any of the other Tanks in the vintage period in platinum or white gold are extremely desirable. Very few Normales were made in white metal; if you find one, it could be a six-figure watch. The Louises in white gold are worth almost double what they’d be in yellow gold, which is far more common.”
Wind himself has spent the better part of a decade searching for a 1970s white gold Tank Louis Jumbo with an automatic movement. “This stuff is really, really rare,” he says.
But of course, that’s the point. Nouveau, who rose to fame in the watch collecting community for his TikTok videos, many of them spotlighting rare Cartiers, is convinced that even today, the brand remains underestimated.
“With any true collector, you always have to pay up for condition, quality, authenticity,” he says. “The watches were undervalued for so long because the sports models were dominant for decades. A real Cartier Tank Louis should be a minimum of $10,000. I think eventually they’ll be $20,000.”
