Our favourite Cartier watches of 2024

Jamie Weiss

When it comes time to look once more on the yr that was in watches and think about which producers had an important yr and which had a stinker, we as fanatics usually operate on purely a vibes basis. Which producers felt like that they’d a tremendous 2024? Successfully, there’s one mannequin which will pretty objectively be said to have had an important yr, and that’s Cartier. Whereas the rest of the watch enterprise finds itself amid a downturn, Cartier product sales have remained strong, and in accordance with the newest Morgan Stanley Swiss watch market report, Cartier may also be one in every of solely a handful of producers to have seen constructive effectivity within the case of secondary market prices – notably beating out Rolex and the Holy Trinity.

Nonetheless let’s be somewhat much less bookish proper right here and be a bit further subjective. Just because a mannequin is selling successfully doesn’t basically suggest they’ve been releasing actually compelling watches… Nonetheless Cartier has definitely had but yet one more strong yr of releases. Whereas 2024’s novelties haven’t been pretty as paradigm-shifting as 2022’s or 2023’s, Cartier has nonetheless had better than ample strategies up their stylish Gallic sleeves to keep up us entertained this yr. Listed beneath are 5 of my (and the T+T employees’s) favourites.

Cartier Tank Louis Mini

As a result of the biggest-wristed member of the Time+Tide employees, I’m not normally one for petit watches, nonetheless the model new mini Tank Louis references that acquired right here out this yr – measuring merely 24mm x 16.5mm – are merely a couple of of my favourite watches of the yr, full stop. This isn’t the first time in Cartier’s historic previous that they’ve offered tiny Tanks, nonetheless on the underside in Geneva for Watches and Wonders along with amongst my fellow collectors and even people I do know who aren’t truly into watches, these itty-bitty Tanks have generated giant buzz.

Merely put, Cartier has captured the zeitgeist: 2024 has felt similar to the tipping degree once more within the route of smaller case diameters, nonetheless not all watch designs go effectively with being shrunk. However, the Tank Louis does. Cartier has moreover exhibited care with this dimension low cost, ditching the Tank’s iconic railway minute monitor to liberate further dial precise property and assure these mini Tanks have a particular look. To nod to 2024’s album of the yr from Charli XCX, the Tank Louis Small is brat. It’s bratty, trendy and provocative no matter whose wrist it’s on. Worth: US$7,000

Cartier Panthère de Cartier Big

Speaking of the smaller case diameter craze, Cartier actually attacked it from every angles this yr. On one hand, we had the Tank Louis, a masculine (or comparatively unisex) watch get smaller, after which then once more, we had the Panthère de Cartier get bigger. The Panthère has prolonged existed as the feminine yin to the Santos‘ yang, nonetheless in 2024, a model new and surprisingly masculine 31mm x 42mm diameter Panthère joined the fluctuate… And similar to the mini Tank, it’s undeniably scorching.

I imagine I talk for fairly a couple of male watch fanatics after I say that I’ve always admired the Panthère’s design, nonetheless as anyone with large wrists, I’d on no account be succesful to justify choosing one over a much bigger Santos. Nonetheless probably it’s the Timothée Chalamet influence – I can positively see myself proudly proudly owning a Panthère Big. Similar to the mini Tank, it’s a two-hander with a quartz movement, which makes it slim and slinky, rather more so than a Santos-Dumont – a consequence of its further supple, shinier bracelet that is an essential part of this watch’s character. I see it as very quite a bit complementing medium and large-size Santoses contained in the fluctuate: the additional alternatives there are, the upper. Worth: US$5,700 (steel), US$10,200 (two-tone), US$30,000 (yellow gold)

Cartier Privé Tortue

Whereas the Time+Tide employees and I intend for these “our favourite x watches of 2024” articles to be pretty purpose cross-sections of each mannequin’s 2024 releases, they’re ultimately subjective lists – which is why I’m putting the Tortue time-only ahead of the Tortue Monopoussoir. This monopusher chronograph is a cool watch, and I’m glad to see Cartier revive it – nonetheless I’ve to dock it components for not bringing once more the gorgeous guilloche dials of the distinctive CPCP fashions or, perhaps further crucially, the Journe-Flageollet-Halter calibre 045 MC movement, selecting a model new in-house nonetheless barely less-lovely calibre 1928 MC.

I admit that’s fundamental watch nerd nitpicking, nonetheless so be it. What I do know for sure is that of all the Cartiers I had the likelihood to attempt on at this yr’s Watches and Wonders, the time-only Tortue was the watch I wanted to abscond with most likely essentially the most. (By the best way by which, I do know Zach doesn’t basically agree with me proper right here – check out his favourite Cartiers of Watches and Wonders 2024 proper right here). Elegant Breguet palms; slim, understated cases; a Piaget-based manual-winding calibre… Whereas they too lack guilloched dials, the silvered opaline dials of the platinum fashions blended with the case metal-matched palms and indices current a stealthy, monochromatic and unusually updated twist to the Tortue parts that I uncover very alluring. Worth: US$31,000 (yellow gold), US$35,600 (platinum)

Cartier Santos-Dumont Rewind

Cartier isn’t by any means a po-faced mannequin, nonetheless you’d further readily describe Cartier as being elegant comparatively than playful. However, the silly, gratuitous and undeniably charming Santos-Dumont Rewind is effectively the highlight launch from the mannequin in 2024. At first look, it’s an immediately charming issue, with a rich carnelian crimson stone dial (and stone dials have been arguably the most important improvement of 2024), extraordinarily reflective Roman numeral indices and delicate Breguet palms, flanked by a ruby cabochon-topped crown that lets you understand it’s comprised of platinum. Nonetheless have one different check out these numerals and likewise you’ll see that they’re going the inaccurate method… What madness is that this?

Positive, the Santos-Dumont Rewind does definitely run in reverse, which makes it barely laborious to be taught nonetheless a tremendous deal further attention-grabbing than your frequent Santos. As Borna put it in his hands-on evaluation, it’s a distinctive complication proposition completed in a completely uncomplicated method which demonstrates that Cartier is conscious of the easiest way to be quirky and let its proverbial hair down every from time to time. Worth: US$38,400

Cartier Reflection of Cartier

I’d like to complete this guidelines with a watch that I don’t assume was paid ample dues this yr: the Reflection de Cartier. Cartier is, in spite of everything, merely as loads of a jeweller as a watchmaker, and the Maison is often at its biggest when it merges these two worlds – which the Reflection de Cartier does brilliantly. Described by Cartier’s ingenious director Marie-Laure Cérède as a “veritable sculpture to placed on on the wrist”, this bangle watch has an impressed, fluid design whereby the watch head faces a mirror-polished ground that offers a distortion-free reflection, giving every the wearer and everyone else two completely totally different seems on the time.

It’s a very clever influence, and one which’s perhaps biggest observed specifically particular person… Nonetheless considering how restricted this watch’s manufacturing has been, it’s one which I feel just a few people have seen in precise life, which is perhaps why it’s flown significantly beneath the radar. The alternative genius half about its design that moreover will get misplaced in translation merely in footage is how surprisingly mild it is on the wrist. Its design seems significantly cumbersome, nonetheless because of loads of the substance of the bangle is made up of arcing hoops comparatively than robust metallic, it’s airier than you could assume – whereas moreover providing further points for reflections to bounce on. Worth: starting at US$39,700