Cartier

Louis-François Cartier founded the firm in Paris in 1847, when he took over the workshop of his master, Adolphe Picard. His son Alfred took charge in 1874, but it was Alfred's three sons who made the name international: Louis ran Paris, moving the house to the rue de la Paix in 1899; Pierre opened in New York in 1909 and in 1917 moved into the Morton Plant mansion at 653 Fifth Avenue; Jacques ran London, later on New Bond Street.

Louis Cartier was behind many of the house's best-known designs, including mystery clocks, Art Deco "Tutti Frutti" jewels and the early use of platinum in fine jewellery. In 1904 he designed a flat, square-bezelled wristwatch for the aviator Alberto Santos-Dumont, which became the Santos, Cartier's first men's wristwatch. The Tank followed, created in 1917 and inspired by the Renault tanks of the Western Front. Royal warrants came early: Edward VII granted one in 1904, and the courts of Spain, Portugal, Russia and others followed.

In 1933 Louis Cartier appointed Jeanne Toussaint director of fine jewellery, a role she held until 1970. Her signature motif was the panther, which she developed into sculptural jewels, especially from the 1940s.

The family sold the businesses after Pierre's death in 1964. An investor group led by Robert Hocq and Joseph Kanoui bought Cartier Paris in 1972 and reunited London and New York with it by 1976; the same team launched "Les Must de Cartier". Alain Dominique Perrin, chairman from 1981, founded the Fondation Cartier pour l'Art Contemporain in 1984. Cartier is now a maison of the Swiss group Richemont.