Cartier Luxury Watches

The jeweller to kings and the king of jewellers, Cartier’s story began in 1847 when Mr Louis-François Cartier rented a modest jewellery store near the oyster market in Paris. He was just 28, but within three decades his business was an empire, built by his sons Pierre, Louis and Jacques, in London, Paris and New York. Their Swiss-made watches are both timeless jewellery and Art Deco icons, with a penchant for novel case shapes and inspirations – from tortoises and baths to armoured vehicles.

Mr Santos-Dumont was a flamboyant and pioneering Brazilian aviator who rendered turn-of-the-century Parisians flabbergasted by buzzing around the Eiffel Tower in his powered flying machines. He might have come a cropper if it wasn’t for his pal Mr Louis Cartier, who responded to his request for a hands-free timepiece with the now-legendary Santos de Cartier watch – arguably the first-ever pilot’s wristwatch. Fast-forward to 1978, and the rebooted Santos was being teed up as the luxury watch of the 1980s – a status cemented by the yellow-gold number gleaming from the wrist of a certain Gordon Gekko in 1987’s Wall Street.