“Santos” – the 1st wrist watch ever was constructed by Louis Cartier

The breakthrough of the brand Cartier happened in 1904, when Louis designed a flat timepiece for Alberto Santos-Dumont, a Brazilian aeronaut and acquaintance of the family. The wrist watch was named “Santos” and made history as Cartiers 1st man’s wristwatch – and the 1st wristwatch ever. Their clients have been really pleased as well with the practical product.

Louis was responsible for lots of the renowned and successful designs of the company. He developed the so called “mystery clocks”, for instance. These wristwatches have a transparent dial and their clockworks are hidden. Another splendid innovation of Louis was an funny watch including multicoloured jewels called “Tutti Frutti”.

The Cartier Tank watch has nowadays more than thirty variations

Already in 1907, Cartier was rapidly evolving and had subsidiaries in St. Petersburg, London and New York. The company was evolving into one of the world’s most successful watch companies. A great highlight in the history of Cartier was a watertight watch produced primarily for the Pasha of Marrakesh in 1932. Fifteen years earlier, Louis developed the “Cartier Tank watch”. This timepiece is still the most well-known clock of the company and has nowadays more than thirty varieties.

At this time, the company began printing reference numbers on the underside of the wrist watches. The presence of these “four-digit-codes” is proving the watches’ originality. The company kept evolving and in 1964, Jean-Jacques, Claude and Marionne (the children of Jacques, Louis and Pierre) sold the whole business.

A new concept – “Les Must de Cartier”

The new owners – a group of various investors – started to design different products that should keep the quality of Cartiers wrist watches in the past. The new concept was called “Les Must de Cartier (Cartier – it is a must!)”. Nowadays, Bernard Fornas is the chief executive officer (CEO) of Cartier. The headquarter of the company is still located in Paris, France. Cartier is regarded as the no. two seller of luxurious watches behind Rolex. Additionally, Cartier is the worldwide no. one seller of luxurious jewels. mens wristwatches

First watch with Eco-Drive – Models reaching from dress to athletics


For Example the first Japanese wristwatch including a wake-up-function was launched by Citizen in 1958. In the 1970ties Citizen originated the debut quartz wrist watches with LCD display and later also the smallest LCD wristwatch ever. In the early 1990ties Citizen started the premier series production of watchcases consisting of titanium. In addition to that, they designed the leadoff voice recognition watch which was another big milestone in their history. Beyond that the company was an outrider in evolving dive watches for professional use. A highlight was the included bathometer – no one else was able to offer a similar uncommon function. Additional, Citizen is best-known for its Eco-Drive collection of light powered wrist watches. Fuelled just by light, it doesn’t require any batteries. Designs reaching from dress to athletics (e.g. professional dive watches), Citizen offers a collection for everybody and every occasion. Find out more about Citizen watches