Cartier, who have supplied the wristwatch for this test, suffers from frequent associations with jewellery, which is largely unfair.

The former one is, naturally, the German writing implement potentate with their Maisterstuck collection… and an excellent watchmaking branch, largely owing to the Minerva brand that was acquired a few years back. Hermes, so far associated mainly with haberdashery and the famous Birkin bag, has presented collections reaching high expert and connoisseur praise in the past few years, but it seems the two manufacturers who are objects of the most fierce discussions are Montblanc and Cartier. Louis Vuitton or Ralph Lauren are fashion giants who bravely invaded the world of wristwatches. More frequently, the names appearing in the watchmaking industry are ones which have been so far known for other luxury goods. Some of them are manufactures in the strict sense, while others, forming a minority, albeit a significant one, have a richer background. An equally diversified field is the activity background of watchmakers. There are some stretching back whole decades, written on dusted sheets in equally dusty archives, but there are some still being written, trying to fight against the apparent lack of multi-generation heritage. You will find equal diversity in the histories of the individual brands. The contemporary watchmaker map hosts brands and manufacturers of every possible profile, starting with budget watches of mainly quartz movements, through simple mechanical watches, more advanced mechanisms with moderate and serious complications to massive complications and weird innovations lifting the art of watchmaking to new heights.

Cartier calibre chronograph review