Cartier and European Watch & Clock Co., Inc

Cartier and European Watch & Clock Co., Inc

A platinum, diamond and enamel wristwatch, movement number 18153, with London Stock number ·1634, Circa 1931

Dial: silvered

Calibre: mechanical, jewelled

Case: platinum, case back secured by 4 screws with hand stamped reference numbers

Case number: 25'547

Closure: cord bracelet and gold and enamel deployant clasp with hand stamped reference numbers

Size: 45 mm length x 15 mm width

Signed: dial signed Cartier, movement signed European Watch & Clock Co Inc, case hand stamped with Cartier reference numbers

Accessories: Cartier fitted presentation box

When Louis-François Cartier (1819-1904) took over the workshop of his master, Adolphe Picard, in 1847, France stood on the threshold of profound political and social change. The following year, the Revolution of 1848 led to the fall of the July Monarchy and the adoption of the Constitution of 1848, establishing the Second Republic. This marked a shift away from hereditary privilege toward republican ideals of progress, merit, and civic identity. In this evolving climate, a new bourgeois clientele began to shape the world of luxury—one that valued refinement, craftsmanship, and innovation over the ostentation of the ancien régime. Cartier’s early success can be understood within this changing landscape, as the Maison responded to a modern vision of elegance that reflected the values of a new era.

Louis Cartier (1875-1942), who joined the family firm in the mid-1890s, was instrumental in transforming Cartier into a modern luxury house. In 1898, the year he married Andrée-Caroline Worth—daughter of the pioneering fashion designer Charles Frederick Worth—Louis became a full partner in the firm at the behest of his father Alfred (1841-1925). The following year, Cartier relocated to 13 Rue de la Paix, establishing its flagship boutique at the centre of Paris’s luxury district. Passionate about horology, Louis quickly recognised the potential of the wristwatch and helped shift Cartier’s focus toward bringing as much of its watch production in-house as possible. Around the same time, Cartier began collaborating with esteemed watchmaker Edmond Jaeger, who had relocated his workshop to Cartier-owned premises. This relationship deepened into a formal partnership in 1907, granting Cartier exclusive access to Jaeger’s movements, including ultra-slim calibres commissioned from LeCoultre. Under Louis’s direction, Cartier introduced a new standard of elegance and technical refinement in wristwatch design. Louis’s passion for the wristwatch led to the introduction of several defining models in the first quarter of the twentieth century. Alongside jewellery watches, these included the Santos (1904), Tonneau (1906), Tortue (1912), and the Tank—designed in 1917 and introduced in 1919.

In the early years of the 20th century, Cartier’s cube, screen and plaque-form clocks often featured guilloché enamel decoration, drawing inspiration from the Fabergé or Russian style. Their designs reflected the prevailing garland style of the early 20th century, characterised by delicate neoclassical motifs and refined ornamentation. However, as the garland aesthetic gave way to the bold geometric language of the Art Deco period, Cartier’s clocks evolved in form and decoration. Bolder shapes and strong contrasts became a hallmark of Cartier’s design vocabulary, with the interplay of dramatically contrasting colours and materials used to enhance the dramatic architectural quality of their timepieces. Such bold juxtaposition was not only visually arresting, but also aligned with the Maison’s broader embrace of luxurious minimalism, where carefully selected materials and precise craftsmanship elevated simple geometric forms into objects of exceptional elegance.

Cartier’s transformation of the luxury desk, boudoir, table and travelling clock was made possible by their association with Maurice Coüet (1885–1963), an exceptional French clockmaker. Coüet came from a family of horologists—his grandfather had regulated table clocks for Breguet—and he inherited a passion for clockmaking at a young age. Before his exclusive partnership with Cartier began in 1911, Coüet worked for the Prévostworkshop on Boulevard Sébastopol in Paris, an early supplier of clock movements to Cartier. Coüet’s inventive genius, combined with Louis Cartier’s vision, led to some of the most iconic and luxurious clocks ever created by the Maison, including the famous Comet and Mystery clocks.

Parallel to these horological advancements, Cartier also led material innovation through the pioneering use of platinum. While first used in small accessories during the mid-19th century, platinum became central to Cartier’s designs at the turn of the century, following Wilhelm Carl Heraeus’s invention of a viable industrial melting process. The metal’s strength and luminous beauty enabled Cartier to create jewellery and timepieces of unprecedented delicacy and brilliance. This embrace of platinum, alongside Louis Cartier’s close ties to the world of haute couture, helped redefine the boundaries between watchmaking and high jewellery—cementing Cartier’s status at the forefront of early 20th-century luxury.