Cartier’s creative director reveals the intuition and ambition behind the maison’s latest watch and jewellery designs
Every spring, the great and good of le monde de l’horlogerie flock to Geneva for Watches and Wonders, a celebration of the best in horological innovation. At this year’s event, Cartier once again proved why it sits at the very pinnacle of both watchmaking and high jewellery. This year’s novelties included the return of the legendary Tank à Guichets, a bold evolution of the Tank Louis Cartier; sculptural new Tressage models; and dazzling high- jewellery Panthère creations. Each piece reflects a maison intent on honouring its heritage while fearlessly pushing the boundaries of design and craftsmanship.
Tatler sat down at the fair with Marie-Laure Cérède, Cartier’s creative director for watches and jewellery. She shares her philosophy on fusing the maison’s dual expertise and her ambitions for Cartier’s next chapter, as well as the secrets behind one of the maison’s most exciting releases of 2025.
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Cartier Tressage Watch in yellow gold, white gold and diamonds (Photo: courtesy of Cartier)
Cartier is renowned for fusing watchmaking and jewellery. What does that fusion mean to you, and how do you ensure its success?
It’s really a balance between head and heart. On one hand, I feel a responsibility to “electrify the past”—to make our icons more refined and contemporary. On the other, it’s vital to nourish our style territory with new shapes, colours, combinations and audacious statements. It’s all about balancing the unconventional with the classic.
When you’re creating something new, how do you know when the design is finished?
You know it at the very end. Honestly, we don’t succeed every time; sometimes, after months of work, a creation just doesn’t work—you feel it, even if you can’t put it into words. We have a phrase: “This is Cartier.” It’s intuitive, not pragmatic, but everyone at Cartier knows what fits. Even our customers sense it. When a design embodies that spirit, we know it’s ready.
How do you balance technical evolution with staying true to Cartier’s roots?
This is a big part of the complexity of [watch] creation at Cartier. We always start by hand, with a drawing—no computer at all at the very beginning—because that’s where you get the emotion of the product. Once we have the emotion, we integrate the technique, elevating it to fit the right emotion and design. For example, we didn’t launch a larger Tank Louis Cartier for years because we didn’t have a movement that respected the proportions of this specific [size of] watch—until this year. Technique must serve the design, and we elevate the technical level to match our expectations.
How do you manage the coordination between the watchmaking and jewellery workshops?
It’s not hard at all. What might seem like a constraint is actually an advantage. We are jewellers before being watchmakers, so our approach to watch design is different [from other manufactures]. We focus deeply on volume and ergonomics—50 per cent of our time on a new creation is spent perfecting these aspects. This jeweller’s mindset infuses our watches with a distinctive finesse.
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Cartier Privé Tank à Guichets Watch in platinum (Photo: courtesy of Cartier)
What boundaries do you hope to dissolve in the next decade?
Within ten years, my ambition is for Cartier to create watches that will be bought by young customers—those who don’t wear watches today. If we can find a way to [appeal to] them, we’ll be very satisfied. We have to think about the future, not just the past, and how watches are worn in new ways.
Can you share an example of a time when you pushed the boundaries of an existing icon?
Take the Tank: we studied every Tank shape since its beginning and chose [to refine] the 1928 model [to create this year’s Tank à Guichets]. We developed a new, thinner movement—1mm thinner than the 2005 version— and improved the jumping hours display to be instant. For collectors, we introduced a platinum version with a subtle twist by altering the apertures. It took a year to perfect, but that’s the level of detail and innovation we strive for.
If you could speak to Louis Cartier, who designed the original Cartier Tank, what would you ask him?
I’d ask if he’s proud of what we are making, and how we can be more and more audacious, like he was in his time. In my job, I’m never satisfied with what we’re doing; I’m always thinking about how to make it better. That drive for perfection is at the heart of Cartier.
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