Official Cartier Watch Dealer
Perodri Joyeros: official Cartier dealer in Spain
As lovers of fine jewelry, at Perodri Joyeros we are very happy to have the confidence of Cartier to be the firm’s official dealer in Spain.
You can come and see its collections at our jewelry stores in Madrid, Bilbao and Santander.
The History and legacy of Cartier
More than 150 years have passed since Louis-Francois Cartier inherited the workshop of his master Adolphe Picard and founded Maison Cartier. The house soon became a benchmark for fine jewelry when in 1856 Princess Mathilde, niece of Napoleon I, made her first purchase.
The big change occurred when Louis Cartier, one of the founder’s grandsons, took the reins of the company and control over the designs. His ambition to be the best jeweler in the world led him to move his designs away from Art Nouveau and other trends of the moment to create unique pieces of jewelry.
Just a few years later, the British monarch Edward VII described Cartier as “jeweler to kings and king of jewelers”, adding to the legend of a firm that is still more relevant than ever today.
Cartier Santos, the world’s first wristwatch
At the beginning of the 20th century, Louis Cartier established a friendship with the Brazilian pilot Alberto Santos Dumont, a pioneer in the history of aviation who was then living in Paris.
While exchanging anecdotes about their two worlds, jewelry and aviation, Santos told Louis how uncomfortable it was to use a pocket watch during flight.
Although we do not know if it was at the request of one or the proposal of the other, a milestone in the history of watchmaking took place: the first watch with a strap for men in history appeared.
The Santos watch has continued to be revised over the years in different models that keep alive the spirit of a watch as historic as it is essential.
The Tank model: one of Cartier’s icons
Thirteen years after changing the history of watchmaking with the first men’s wristwatch, Louis Cartier created the Tank model. According to him, its design is due to the shape of the World War I tanks seen from above.
Interestingly, the first example of the watch was given to General John Pershing, who had fought on the Western Front. Shortly after, the model became an absolute reference for men’s watchmaking and marked the future of subsequent designs.
This watch has remained in the Cartier catalog for more than a hundred years and today is a timeless symbol of fine jewelry.
Panthère de Cartier: the emblem of the firm
At the beginning of the 20th century, large felines were a symbol of femininity. The illustrator George Barbier had made a watercolor for an exhibition in the Cartier boutique in which a woman with a black panther at her feet was shown, which strongly caught the attention of Louis Cartier.
In 1914, after divorcing his first wife, Louis travels to Kenya with Jeanne Toussaint to see the panthers in their natural habitat. It is then that he decides that the panthère should be the symbol of the firm.
Shortly after, Jeanne Toussaint became part of Cartier, becoming the great promoter of the union between the panther and jewelry: two timeless expressions of elegance and femininity present in the firm’s designs.