Part 1 of How and Why Did Cartier Watches Become So Popular? 2018 - Feb 2024 Edition

And an appearance by Paul Newman

Source: Everywatch Cartier Crash Report

Why is Cartier, especially mechanical antique/vintage and pre-2008 neo-vintage Cartier, so popular today?

Actually, Cartier has always been popular.

Matt Hranek

has been recommending Tanks on his Substack regularly and even recorded a video with Hodinkee in 2017.

Mark Cho

is also a fan.

But I remember buying and selling mechanical Tanks and Santos Dumonts for $3-4K back in 2018 and early 2019, usually as filler inventory. Now those same watches are $8-10K. Many rarer models have established themselves as $10K+ watches. A Cristallor which I briefly wrote about in my Auction Highlights: February 13, 2024 post hammered on Feb 21 at approximately $21K. Graph courtesy of @cartier_chronicles on Instagram:

Other mechanical, pre-2008 models I’ve highlighted have hammered strongly, including the Cintree w/ Service Dial/Movement ($160K), Normale ($19K) and Jumbo ($9.5K). And let’s not forget the Bamboo Coussin that hammered on Feb 15 at Loupe This for $67K. Some models like the CPCP Tortue Monopoussoir and Pasha have been stagnant, but overall it’s been an increase across the board.

What changed in the past 5 years?

I read several articles on the recent rise of Cartier’s popularity, and the reasons stated are in some form or another one of the below:

1. People are tired of steel sports watches

2. People want smaller watches

3. Cartiers have timeless design

4. Cartier has strong brand value

5. Celebrities such as Tyler, the Creator wear Cartiers

But these seem more like symptoms rather than the cause. Why do people want smaller, less steel sports watches? Cartier’s designs and overall brand value haven’t change much for decades - why the recent popularity? Many celebrities wear Rolexes and Pateks - why aren’t those more popular? And speaking of celebrities, why did Tyler, the Creator choose to wear a Crash? And by the way, why is the Cartier Pasha and post-2008 Cartiers from the Fine Watchmaking Collection so unpopular?

These are questions I hope that in the future, a trend-noticing AI agent will be able to answer for us by synthesizing vast amounts of data from social media, Pitti photos, demographic data, etc.

But for now I’ll take a crack at it. I wrote a long post and then realized nobody would read it so I’ve summarized it into 8 points in roughly chronological order. I’m sure you have your own opinions, feel free to comment. (Note: When I refer to vintage Cartier watches, I am generally referring to the more common mechanical Tanks, Ceintures, Dumonts, etc., not the rare London Crash or original Cintrees.)

1. In 2018, memories of cheap gold-plated quartz Must de Cartier Tanks were fading. The over-sized and over-complicated Fine Watchmaking Collection (FMC) was being discontinued, replaced the same year by the classically designed and sized Collection Prive line. UPDATE: Kanye West appears on Twitter wearing a Cartier Crash (thank you

   Tony Traina
   ) following Kim Kardashian’s purchase of Jacqueline Kennedy’s Cartier Tank the year prior.

2. By early 2019, all vintage sports Rolex models (the bellwether of the vintage watches market) had long passed the pre-inflation psychological threshold of $10K, and the vintage watches market overall was meeting some price resistance (before exploding during COVID). The iconic Tank and many other mechanical Cartiers (excluding Cintrees, London Crash and other rare models) were priced approximately 1/3 - 1/2 of the price of luxury watches such as the Rolex Submariner and even less vs a Patek Philippe Nautilus. The stereotype of Cartier as feminine watches, plus aforementioned memories of the Musts and FMC contributed to this discount. Prescient collectors began their search for vintage Cartiers.

3. Francesca Cartier Brickell’s “The Cartiers: The Untold Story of the Family Behind the Jewelry Empire”, published in Nov 2019, ignited worldwide interest in classic, pre-1980’s (pre-Pasha) Cartier family-era designs from both enthusiasts and more importantly, the non-watch focused public. Glowing reviews in the WSJ and NY Times was followed by a worldwide book tour.

4. In 2020/2021, thanks to the scholarship, curation and enticing presentations by dealers such as

   Watch Brothers London
   and A Collected Man, there was growing acceptance of 1990’s+ neo-vintage as a collectible category. Concurrently, the late Cartier scholar George Cramer’s enthusiasm for the neo-vintage CPCP collection (1998-2008), which were faithful reissues of the Cartier family era (pre-acquisition, pre-Must, pre-Pasha) models, garnered strong collector interest. Neo-vintage Cartiers were also more robust in terms of build and serviceability compared to their vintage predecessors.

5. Since the COVID pandemic, watch weight and growing theft concerns shifted some demand away from heavy, conspicuous luxury watches such as the Nautilus to lighter, smaller watches such as Cartier Santos Dumonts. When spending time mostly at home in a lockdown, lighter watches are much more comfortable.

6. Acceleration of the shift to casual wear post-COVID lead to the Ralph Lauren-influenced and Ivy/vintage-inspired “comfortable elegance” menswear trend by new brands such as Rubato and authorities such as Simon Crompton of PermanentStyle, in which accessories such as Cartier Tanks played a key role in differentiation and maintaining status and elegance when dressed casually. This is important because the readership demographic of for example PermanentStyle and Hodinkee overlap. (Also note Ralph Lauren was an avid Cartier collector.)

7. Tyler the Creator appears with a Cartier Crash in 2021, further breaking the stereotype of Cartiers as feminine watches, and captures the full attention of the men’s watch market. He extolls the lightness of his Cartier.

8. Rarity (most pre-Must production runs were less than 1000 units, and many survivors have cracked dials, further reducing the pool), Divisibility (Paris Mk 1 vs Mk 2 dials, JLC vs ETA movements, Ebel, etc.), Design Focus (more Instagram-ability, less hidden movement quality) and Model Variety (Ceinture, Normale, Crash, etc.) of vintage and neo-vintage Cartier watches led to explosive collector and dealer interest, as reflected in surging auction prices from approximately 2021 and continuing today.

Cary Grant with Cartier Tank perfecting post-pandemic “comfortable elegance” look way back in the 1970’s. Source: GQ-UK

Oliver from Rubato sporting a Tank. Source: PermanentStyle

…And speaking of Tanks, could Paul Newman be wearing a Cartier Tank in this image?