The watch, named the Santos, was a hit with Santos-Dumont, and his celebrity status made men’s watches fashionable for the first time. He designed a timepiece that fastened to the wrist with a leather band and the first men’s wristwatch was born. When aviator Alberto Santos-Dumont complained that the size, shape and unreliability of pocket watches made them unsuitable for flying, his friend Louis Cartier offered to help. The appointments went on to include the courts of Portugal, Russia, Siam, Greece, Serbia, Belgium, Romania, Egypt, Albania, Orleans and Monaco. In that same year, the company also received appointment as official purveyor to King Alfonso XIII of Spain. The king had declared Cartier as ‘joaillier des rois, roi des joailliers' or ‘jeweller to kings, king of jewellers’. This was in 1902, the same year as the coronation of King Edward VII, a strategy that proved to be a wise one as only two years later, the company received a royal warrant to become the king’s official purveyor of fine jewellery. The brothers spread the wings of the business further still by opening a boutique on New Burlington Street in London. Boutiques opened across Paris, garnering much interest and excitement, the social elite flocking to join the ever-growing list of clients purchasing the brand’s exquisite watches and jewellery. Less than ten years later, the sale of the company’s goods transcended to royalty, namely Princess Mathilde, cousin of Emperor Napoleon III, who was the first of the company's many aristocratic customers.Īs Louis-Francois grew older, he enlisted the help of his three sons, Louis, Pierre and Jacques, who helped to expand the brand. His aim was to continue the tradition of fine watch and jewellery making, and before long, the brand’s reputation had spread across the country. Inherited from master watchmaker Adolph Picard in 1847, apprentice Louis-Francois Cartier took over his Paris-based workshop at the age of 29.

Although the purveyor of fine jewellery and leather accessories is not predominately a watchmaker, it has had a surprisingly significant influence on the horological evolution of centuries past. Sometimes overlooked by the serious watch enthusiast, Cartier watches have more history, relevance and pedigree than some might realise.

Lecoultre gold watch