Even by the standard of its long history, Cartier’s current run in watchmaking is one for the books.
At 179 years old, the Paris-based house is estimated by industry sources to be the world’s second-largest watch brand by sales.
Even more remarkably, Cartier has appeared more resilient than much of Swiss watchmaking through a pandemic-fueled boom and correction, against a backdrop of geopolitical and macroeconomic upheaval.
It has done so by solving the ultimate equation in heritage luxury: staying visible without losing its aura of elegance, commanding premiums for rare models at auction without becoming inaccessible, and tapping its archive while attracting a younger clientele.
That has held through on both the primary and secondary markets.
For 2025, the annual report published by Morgan Stanley and specialized firm LuxConsult placed Cartier’s sales at almost 3.5 billion Swiss francs — 695,000 watches at an average price of 6,100 Swiss francs. They estimated that sales grew 10 percent in value and 2 percent in volume, putting Cartier’s market share at 8.7 percent.
Appetite is visible at auction, too. In September, Sotheby’s Hong Kong sold a rare Cartier Cheich, awarded to Paris-Dakar Rally winners, for a record $3.4 million.
The broader secondary market is rising, too. A recent third-quarter report from Morgan Stanley and WatchCharts said Cartier’s price tracker reached a record high in September after six consecutive quarterly gains.
Prices rose 2.4 percent in the quarter, and 10 of the 12 tracked collections increased, including the Roadster and Baignoire designs leading. In-production models in the Panthère, Santos and Tank collections also saw double-digit annual price gains, according to the report.
The brand has risen sharply on pop-culture radars, with conversations — and online searches — spiking after appearances on wrists such as those of Taylor Swift, Timothée Chalamet and John Legend as well as a raft of ambassadors, including Paul Mescal.
A Design-First Identity
Arnaud Carrez, Cartier’s chief marketing officer, told WWD the groundwork for this was asserting a difference on the global watch market.
“About a decade ago, we clarified the maison’s playing field in watchmaking…what [its] identity is and what that means for watchmaking,” he said. “That was when we established ‘watchmaker of shapes.’”
That moniker embodies the house ideal that “everything starts with the design, and technique should serve the design.” Movements, for example, are developed in light of the case that it will be fitted into, not the other way around.
Plus, the brand’s expansive archive is something to be leveraged, not left aside.
“We are not here to disrupt. We are more about evolution and continuity,” Carrez continued. “Authenticity, sincerity, consistency and continuity” are key words for the house, he added.
Speaking at a roundtable with journalists at this year’s Watches and Wonders fair in Geneva, chief executive officer Louis Ferla insisted that “everything that is being done is within the DNA of the maison; everything that is presented is true to Cartier history and heritage.”
It built a perception of Cartier creations as “iconic models or future icons,” the CEO added. In a volatile market environment, “clients tend to be reassured by iconic models.”
Case in point: the Crash Squelette timepiece, part of the Cartier Privé Les Opus lineup revealed at the fair to mark the 10th anniversary of its high-horology annual collection.
One of the most talked about pieces at the fair, its challenge included reshaping the manual-winding caliber 1967 MC to fit the elongated “melting” asymmetric outline and moving its crown to the 4 o’clock position, in the dip of the shape for an even more off-kilter and complex result.
Likewise, the Tank, Baignoire and other readily recognizable families continue to be revisited with changes in proportions, materials and movements. Within the Santos collection, for example, Ferla pointed to different expressions, from a sporty chronograph to a more classic metal-bracelet watch.
Working a range also gives Cartier more than one route to a customer. “We’ve ensured over the last years to have more transversal and more vertical offers on the core collections,” said Carrez.
References have been streamlined and the company has been “very careful about having reasonable prices across the board,” he noted. “We still have many references below the 5,000-euro threshold, and that’s part of Cartier’s DNA.”
Continuity and Range
That range has helped Cartier maintain momentum as the watch market see-sawed and settled after the post-pandemic surge.
In a report published in February, Vontobel estimated that Cartier held about 16 percent of the Swiss watch segment above 500 Swiss francs in 2025, noting that it was the fastest-growing brand in value in that segment and one of only two in the top 10 to increase volumes.
The firm said it “underlines Cartier’s exceptional momentum, combining breadth of offering for both women and men, strong pricing power, a positive halo from its jewelry success, high-quality retail execution and global reach in a way very few competitors can replicate.”
These sustained efforts resulted in Cartier’s watchmaking growing 85.5 percent over six years, from an estimated 1.8 billion Swiss francs in sales for 2019 to 3.35 billion in 2025, according to Vontobel’s report.
“Unlike many Swiss watchmakers that rely heavily on technical watchmaking credentials, Cartier appeals to a much broader audience through timeless models such as the Tank, Santos and Panthère, which are instantly recognizable and highly versatile,” said Morgan Stanley in a June research note.
The bank also highlighted that the brand benefited from “shifting consumer preferences toward smaller, more elegant, and gender-neutral watches, a trend that aligns well with its heritage” as well as a “natural pipeline” coming from its large jewelry customer base.
Cartier’s approach dovetails with a growing interest in vintage models and designs with a strong identity, rather than focusing only on movement specifications.
“Our clients are getting younger, which is very good news,” Ferla said. “And we see there is a trend that is especially true in the younger generation about vintage…we are really offering something which makes sense in that segment.”
Also playing into the French brand’s hand is that it doesn’t segment by gender.
Yet the message that came across in filigree is that the goal is not only to make watches that sell now, but to leave a meaningful body of work that will carry the French house forward on the long run.
“We enjoy some shade today because our predecessors planted trees and did a good job,” said Ferla at Watches and Wonders. “Everything that we do, we want to be proud of 10, 20, 30 years from now — and for the people who replace us to say [we] have done a good job.”