Are Cartier watches luxury watches?The short answer is that indeed they are, now.Cartier watches, despite their past merits, used to be considered more jewels than watches, and indeed they mostly were for a long time - but what happened in the last few years inside Cartier is really amazing.Cartier is past of the Richemont group - and the Richemont top brasses have decided to turn Cartier into a real u201cmaison horlogu00e8reu201d.For this goal, they have dedicated the resources of several master watchmakers in a lab which used to serve the Roger Dubuis brand, also Richemont-owned, and had a plan, which coalesced effectively with the nomination of its International CEO Bernard Fornas in 2002.Cartier was SO serious about becoming a true manufacture to open a centralized building to house all of the Cartier operations inside it - and you can see it on top.The building, which is a 4,000 square meters facility, and opened up in 2024. is currently the largest fully integrated watch production facilities in Switzerland, and houses 900 workers.Nowadays, in the new manufacture, the company makes almost everything it puts in its watches. It makes quartz movements (which are very popular in its thinnest watches), mechanical movements, movement components (plates, bridges, etc.), cases (including gem-set ones for jewelry watches), bracelets, straps, hands, all of its mineral crystals, and dials (including all of its enamel dials).And this guy is one of the 900 workers in the Cartier hub, controlling one of the calibers coming out of the facility. Which, as you would see, have little to envy to what other manufacturers are doing.Which are amazing movements which are quite different from what you find in other watches. Just look at this.This is a Cartier Rotonde Astrotourbillon. The tourbillon circles around the dial every 60 seconds, working also as a seconds hand.u201cThe main philosophy (of Cartier) is to be creative rather than complex,u201d. This is what the head of movement development at Cartier, Carole Forestier-Kasapi says. u201cTechnique is at the service of aesthetics and creativity. Our goal is not to be the most complex or have the most complicated watches in the world. The main thing is that the creativity is a tool to be technical.u201dAnd the results of this design-oriented function are, indeed, excellent.This is the Santos 100 Skeleton base on the Caliber 9611 MC, with bridges in the form of Roman numerals.So, if you had any doubts about Cartier being a true watch manufacturer, well, I guess that now you should seriously reconsider your previous assessments.Things change, and Cartier has changed much, as well.As a note to my readers, I mostly write about high-end and luxury objects, like watches, furniture and design: so if you are interested in those fields, be sure to check my other answers and follow me. And a nice upvote is always welcome!If you are a Facebook or Instagram user and like watches, I curate a page/profile called u201cThe Watchonomiconu201d. I am publishing daily images of cool watches, links to articles, and other interesting stuff - together with some special offers on very special watches that I happen to have for sale.If you think my answers are interesting, and deserve more diffusion, please nominate them here: Publish This: Quora's Publishing Nominations Blog
