Cartier watches have come to represent pure luxury and style over the years, and are arguably one of the most popular and well known brands of watch on the planet. They symbolise a classic style not found in other watch brands, a kind of class that comes with a long history and a passion for high quality timepieces.
Cartier Tank Francaise, one of Cartier's most popular models.
The house of Cartier was founded in 1847 by Louis-Francois Cartier, and has its headquarters in Paris. Cartier watches contain the movements of a several famous and reputable watch making companies, with Swiss companies Vacheron Constantin, Movado, Audemars Piguet and Le Coultre providing many of these movements.
The most recent development in Cartier watches, however, is the Cartier Calibre collection of timepieces, released in 2010. These Cartier watches contain their first completely in-house designed automatic movement, a revolution and a break away from Cartier’s dependency on other companies for its watch movements. The Calibre watches use the 1904 MC movement, so named after the year that Cartier made a watch for Alberto Santos Dumont that could be used by pilots, and was Cartier’s first wrist watch.
This 42mm timepiece has a more modern look with newer case and dial designs, but retains the class of the original Cartier watches. It is available in steel and 18k rose gold, or two-tone with a gold bezel and steel case, and has a 48 hour power reserve. This timepiece may prove rather attractive to collectors who prefer an in-house movement from their timepiece, as well as those with a passion for classic watches.