Louis-François
Cartier founded Cartier in
Paris in 1847 when he took over the workshop of his master, Adolphe Picard. In
1874, Louis-François' son Alfred Cartier took over the company, but it was
Alfred's sons Louis, Pierre, and Jacques who established the brand name worldwide.
Louis ran
the Paris branch, moving to the Rue de la Paix in 1899. He was responsible for some of
the company's most celebrated designs, such as the mystery clocks (a type of
clock with a transparent dial and so named because its mechanism is hidden),
fashionable wristwatches and exotic orientalist Art Deco designs, including the
colorful "Tutti Frutti" jewel.
In 1904,
Brazilian pioneer aviator, Alberto Santos-Dumont complained
to his friend Louis Cartier of the unreliability and impracticality of using
pocket watches while flying. Cartier designed a flat wristwatch with a
distinctive square bezel that was favored by Santos-Dumont and many other
customers. This was the first and only time the brand would name a watch
after its original wearer. The "Santos" watch was Cartier's first
men's wristwatch. In 1907, Cartier signed a contract with Edmond Jaeger, who
agreed to exclusively supply the movements for Cartier watches.[24] Among the
Cartier team was Charles Jacqueau, who joined Louis Cartier in 1909 for the rest of his life, and Jeanne Toussaint, who was Director of Fine Jewellery from
1933.
Pierre
Cartier established a New York City branch in 1909, moving in 1917 to 653 Fifth Avenue, the Neo-Renaissance mansion of Morton Freeman Plant (son of
railroad tycoon Henry B. Plant), designed
by architect C.P.H. Gilbert.[25] Cartier
purchased it from the Plants in exchange for $100 in cash and a double-stranded
natural pearl necklace valued at the time at $1 million.[26] By this time,
Cartier had branches in London, New York and Saint Petersburg and was quickly becoming one of the most
successful watch companies.
Designed
by Louis Cartier, the Tank watch was introduced in 1919 and
was inspired by the newly introduced tanks on
the Western Front in World War I. In the early 1920s, Cartier formed a joint-stock company with
Edward Jaeger (of Jaeger-LeCoultre) to
produce movements solely for Cartier. Cartier continued to use movements from
other makers: Vacheron Constantin, Audemars Piguet, Movado, and LeCoultre. It was also during this period that Cartier began
adding its own reference numbers its watches by stamping a four-digit code on
the underside of a lug. Jacques took charge of the London operations and
eventually moved to the current address at New Bond Street.