Cartier embarks on the land of tomorrow
Ah, San Francisco. The land of fleece jackets, Teva sandals, tech moguls with unironic beards and more electric scooters that you can shake a stick at. I lived there back in 1999, just before the first tech bubble burst, when a common question to be asked at dinner parties was how many shares you had. 18 years later and I’ve returned to find out what the centre of tech innovation has to offer the world of luxury.
San Francisco was chosen by Cartier as the site of its relaunch of the Santos Watch. The Santos was created back in 1904 and today’s version retains all of the originals style, with added interchangeable leather and chain wrist straps.
The Californian city of hills, home to style innovators like Apple, rule-breaking start-ups like Uber or Airbnb, plus its mix of natural grandeur and small-town values, makes it a natural backdrop to reconsider what luxury means in today's climate.
Cartier is a brand that doesn’t need to launch new products endlessly. In an industry where fashion brand's revealing innovative collections four times a year is the (now questioned) key to success, Cartier sits in a league of its own, with an unrivalled ability to capture the essence of beauty in its products.
But for this launch they didn’t rest on their laurels, rather they created an immersive, experiential social lab with a series of events that culminated in a huge blowout party with celebrities such as Sienna Miller and Jake Gyllenhaal in attendance.
The lab featured panel discussions from Frida Pinto and Melanie Laurent discussing the topic of invention and failure – Pinto advised the intimate audience of 15-20 people to ignore rejection and negativity in life - to meditation teacher Bob Roth in conversation with mega-surfer Laird Hamilton on putting mind over matter.
Actor-come-DJ Idris Elba, director Sam Taylor-Johnson and designer Es Devlin also spoke on designing and folowing dreams. These voices are all rule-breakers and inventors and they took the opportunity to delve into free-flowing conversations on innovation and creativity – values that Cartier holds dear to its heart.
The three-day, fully immersive experience is a new step for a heritage brand like Cartier that has typically used advertising as their key communication platform. Although they launched the Fondation Cartier pour l'Art Contemporain in 1984, one of the first luxury brands to make the foray into contemporary art, this represents a new frontier.
Combined with their undoubtedly beautiful objects – be they watches, leather accessories or unique couture jewellery pieces, timeless classics like Juste un Clou, the Love bracelet, and now, the Santos watch – the quiet legacy of Cartier now has a roaring voice.