Intro to Cartier Chronicles
A lot of ink has been spilled and TIk Tok shorts forged about the recent rise in popularity of Cartier. “Shaped watches are all the rage”, “Timotee was wearing a small Panthere”, “The Cartier Crash is the ultimate watch”.
It’s great, I love the energy and excitement, but as much has been said, I worry there is little of substance said or documented. Tony Traina wrote a great in-depth review of 70’s Cartier, Rich Forden penned a great overview of the Cartier Tank. But these are only two published articles (one in print only, believe it or not). Meanwhile, Mike Nouveau continues as the best Storyteller in the watch world using short form video (aka Tik Tok). Kevin O’Dell is constantly dropping profoundly valuable information on Vintage Cartier, but through the fickle “12-hour half life” medium of insta stories.
A shockingly large number of articles are written each year about Timothee wearing his mini-Panthere
Call me old fashioned, but I think we need more old school written word to help this hobby reach greater depth of maturity. The sweet morsels in short form will draw in the masses, but maybe we need more substantive content to complement it?
Selfishly, I’ll cover what I think is interesting. A lot of 70’s Cartier, but also the transition from 60’s to 70’s as this is a fascinating period in Cartier’s history. I’m a PhD by training, so there will be research and deep dives and excruciating details. Likely not the stuff of mass market media, but hopefully interesting to more the just a few.
The 12 watches released in 1973 by Cartier ; Photo Credit Hodinkee
Personally, I started with 70’s Cartier as a sweet spot for collecting. They are numerous (low tens of thousands produced), diverse (12 shapes, multiple materials), and inherently valuable (mechanical movements, precious metal cases, etc). While prices have surely increased, these watches remain relatively accessible. I’ll document the lessons I’ve learning along my collecting journey and what makes a good example. Not the authorized history from Cartier, but what I’ve pieced together from countless hours scouring the internet.
But is written word dead? Long form lame? I hope not. This is what I hope to try, longer form documentation of Vintage Cartier. Chronicling vintage Cartier. Cartier Chronicles.