As the maison that dwarfs all others within Richemont, Cartier is far and away the single most powerful hard luxury brand in the world. No other brand has managed to simultaneously dominate the jewelry and watch market like Cartier. No other brand has managed to simultaneously captivate the watch and jewelry lover like Cartier. A Forbes list of 100 most valuable brands in 2020 ranked the maison at 56^th place, valued at USD12.2B generating estimated annual revenue of USD6.2B. There was no other jewelry maison on the list apart from Cartier, and that was in 2020.

Much has evolved in the five years since and Cartier has unequivocally demonstrated its incredible range within the hard luxury category. Just last week, Richemont posted amazing Q3 results. A solid +10% growth across the board with jewelry maisons pulling ahead at +14% and Cartier accounting predominantly for the figures, followed by Van Cleef & Arpels, then Buccellati and Vhernier. It’s not easy to determine what the driving force is behind this success — is it strong leadership, is it great designs, is it rich heritage? If you asked Pierre Rainero, his answer is all of the above.

“Cartier work is a teamwork and it was not different at the time of Louis Cartier and Jeanne Toussaint than what it is today,” says the maison’s Image, Style and Heritage Director. “It’s very easy now to say, ‘Okay, Louis was the head, so he’s responsible for everything. Then Jeanne took over…’ But in fact, there were many other people working with them, who were very influential too.” Rainero is referring to the many creative minds and talented hands that made up the Cartier team, such as Charles Jacqueau who worked closely with Louis Cartier and also Pierre Lemarchand who worked closely with Jeanne Toussaint. He also brought up the critical role played by Cartier’s commercial team.

“We also have to consider the presence of people on the commercial side, who were acting like parameters of how the world was evolving, and giving insight to Louis. From New York they told him how clients were now changing. They wanted this and not that. We have notebooks from them detailing how we should do this, we should do that and so on. So, it’s a collective work,” he adds. Indeed, one of the many reasons behind Cartier’s success in the early years was its keen understanding of the different markets and how to find the right match between the maison’s identity and that of different cultures around the world.

The Ultimate Luxury Maison

In addition, few people truly understand the massive presence of Cartier in the hard luxury industry. Yes, many do realize it is the number one jeweler in the world. And since 2020, per the Morgan Stanley x LuxeConsult report, it officially became the second largest watchmaker in the world, closing in at CHF3.1B in annual revenue turnover (2023 figures). Richemont’s 2024 finance report disclosed that its jewelry maisons collectively make up 69% of its annual revenue turnover.

That year, Richemont Group revenue totaled €20.6B where jewelry maisons clocked in at €14.242B. If we estimated that Cartier represents 75% of division sales then we are looking at an annual revenue of €10B or more, and that number is set to grow in the years ahead. In January 2023, Cartier opened a state-of-the-art manufacturing site for jewelry production in Turin which suggests increased production volume in the offing.

This brings us to the single most amazing characteristic of Cartier. Even though it is a volume player (with the exception of mid and high jewelry) every product it creates is deeply imbued with the strong identity and high quality one expects of the French luxury jeweler. Because it is a volume player, its entry level fine jewelry creations such as Trinity or Love remains accessible to luxury customers, indeed, stylish luxury customers. At the same time, there are multiple tiers of product groups for each individual to scale the hierarchy. Because at some point, a Juste Un Clou bracelet or Trinity ring is not enough, and customers move on to Panthère or Clash or more exclusive lines like Grain de Cafe.

Yet even the entry level products are so rich with Cartier heritage and creative authenticity. The Cartier Tank goes back to 1917. The Trinity Ring goes back to 1924. Both were original designs of none other than Louis Cartier himself. Panthère, a pillar most keenly attributed to Jeanne Toussaint, goes back to 1914 and the journey continues well into the present century where the current leaders and directors of the maison are tasked to take care of Cartier’s precious legacy.

In its 2024 finance report, it was disclosed that the jewelry maisons collectively make up 69% of Richemont’s annual revenue turnover.

Says Rainero, “For me, the best achievement of our founders is to have created a Cartier culture within the maison. Because what we benefited from that Cartier culture is incredible. People leave, but Cartier culture remains. That’s our role today, to nurture, to enrich that Cartier culture and transmit it into the future.”

Maison With A Singular Vision

Across all its product divisions, fine watchmaking to fine jewelry to high jewelry, Cartier has a singular identity and a dynamic vision that honors its past in order to define its future. The maison does not overly rely on the past for creative ideas. Rather, everything created today is a continuation of the icons its forebears had established. This is why Cartier’s designs always reflect the modernity of each era. One brilliant example was the Maillon de Cartier jewelry watch released in 2020, a timepiece that was so deeply redolent of Cartier heritage and yet is a completely new creation. Likewise the latest Libre collection, which reminds one instantly of the iconic Tutti Frutti but very much has its own identity, and the new Trinity line which embraces Cartier’s penchant for animal motifs.

Rainero goes on, “Everything we do is the result of that main achievement. Even Louis Cartier never spoke using ‘I’ or ‘me’ when discussing matters relating to the company. It was always about ‘the house’ and never about what he personally wanted. He made it a point to distinguish between what was his own taste and what was good for the house to build on. It worked that way during that time, and it’s still the case today.

Whenever you look at a Cartier creation, from its timeless icons to its latest novelties, you immediately sense its desirability. There is no explanation required in order to feel its beauty. Obviously, there is a continuing red thread linking contemporary Cartier designs with those of the past but this cuts much deeper than just the reappearance of familiar motifs. What truly connects modern Cartier with archival Cartier is the philosophy of taking something from the past and creating it for the present. What every Cartier designer or artistic director understands is that everything they create must remain valued in the decades to come. This perpetual process is what imbues generations of Cartier creatives with the design language of Cartier, itself an entity that is continuously evolving.

It is how designs like Maillon de Cartier could have been conceived. It was how designs like Love and Juste Un Clou had been conceived. At that time, Aldo Cipullo was creating objects with the logic of Cartier. The maison had always embraced the idea of expressing the beauty of pure shapes, featuring exposed screws in the Santos, featuring clou carré shaped brooches and cuff links as early as in 1900. So, while Juste Un Clou was considered a radically different aesthetic, it was in fact perfectly congruous with Cartier design culture.

“I think that original vision of permanent evolution, and I would even say necessary evolution, is thanks to that culture. Thanks to that culture, we are not frozen [sic]. We are encouraged to move, to propose new things, and to integrate the idea that our objects would be desirable today, and not as museum pieces, but objects people want to live with,” says Rainero.