Louis Cartier
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| Louis Francois Cartier | |
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| Born | 1875 Paris, France |
| Died | 1942 |
| Nationality | French |
| Profession | Businessman |
Louis Cartier (1875–1942) was a famous French watchmaker and businessman known worldwide for his elegant and extravagant designs in watches. The son of Alfred Cartier, he was passionate about mechanical pocket watches and had the goal of creating his own line of timepieces. Although Patek Phillipe created the first wristwatch in 1868, Louis Cartier is responsible for helping to popularize it over the traditional pocket watch. The most important steps in Cartier's family business were made by several generations: Louis Francois Cartier, his son Alfred Cartier and three grandsons, Pierre, Jacque and Louis Francois.
In 1904, his Brazilian friend Alberto Santos-Dumont, an early pioneer of aviation, asked Cartier to design a watch that could be useful during his flights. Since pocket watches were not suitable, Louis Cartier created the Santos wristwatch, which was also the first wristwatch made for men. Santos first went on sale in 1911. Thus, Cartier established his first production of wristwatches. In Rue de la Paix he designed timepieces with the help of Edmond Jaeger who agreed to supply Cartier's watch line with movements.
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[edit] Business expansion
When Alfred Cartier, the son of a goldsmith, started managing the production of jewelry, his three sons, Pierre, Jacques and Louis Francois Cartier were the ones to help the family business expand. They eventually turned the Cartier brand into the most known name in the world of jewelry and watchmaking.
Louis Francois, who had the same name as his grandfather, joined the family business in 1899. His abilities as a businessman later helped in making Cartier a famous brand worldwide. The expansion continued with the opening of the Cartier London store in 1902 and the New York store in 1909.
In 1910 the Cartier family opened two new stores, in Moscow and the Persian Gulf. However, the success of the New York store helped Cartier to receive world recognition. Between the two World Wars, Cartier was able to open stores in Cannes and Monte Carlo. Later the expansion continued with the opening of new shops in Hong Kong, Munich and Geneva.
In 1912 Cartier introduced the Baignoire and Tortue, which are two models still in production today. 1917 saw the debut of the Tank.
It was also during this period that Cartier began adding its own reference numbers to the watches it sold, usually by stamping a four-digit code on the underside of a lug. In fact, many collectors refuse to accept a Cartier as an original unless these numbers are present.
Louis Cartier died in 1942. In 1945 his brother Pierre took over the family business and became the president of Cartier International. Later Cartier International turned into a huge multinational organization. In 1972 its president, Robert Hocq, took over the branches of Cartier in London and New York, and re-established the prestige of Cartier. Today Cartier watches have the movements of such famous Swiss watchmaking companies as: Vacheron Constantin, Audemars Piguet, Movado and Le Coultre.
[edit] Cartier watch models
Throughout its history the company designed such models as Tonneau in 1906, Tortue in 1912 and Tank in 1910. After the death of Louis Francois and change in the management of the company, Cartier went on by producing Baignoire in 1957, Panthère in 1983, Pasha de Cartier in 1985 as well as Tank Française in 1996 and Cartier's Privée Collection. Today the company creates watches with some classical Cartier designs. Among the most famous revived classical watches are Roadster, Santos 100 and Pasha. Cartier most famous watch is influenced by his wife.
