What made you come to India?

Cartier has had a presence in India for the last 100 years. Jacques Cartier was in charge of operations at the end of the last century. He was invited to the Delhi darbar in 1911 and met maharajas who commissioned not only jewellery but also watches. When the royals came to Paris and London they’d shop at the Cartier boutiques. The maharaja of Patiala asked us to completely reset his entire jewellery collection. At the same time Cartier drew a lot of inspiration from the Indian culture like the Tutti-fruit collection. It was a mutual benefit for both. We do buy back a few of our watches and display them at the Cartier museums. We have some pieces that have belonged to a couple of maharajas and the king of Nepal. Some maharajas had so many that they hired special help to wind all of their watches and clocks! Coming to more modern times, for a while it wasn’t possible to retail in India. It was in 1995 that the laws were changed and we are now present in seven cities through retailers and distributors

We’ve been growing pretty fast considering the laws changed only a few years ago. India has so far been a small percentage of our global growth but we see three frontiers for future growth Russia, China and India. We do see a lot of growth in the long run

Earlier a lot of Indians went abroad to buy their luxury watches. What percentage of those buyers have become local buyers?

I think there a few issues of purchasing luxury watches in India. The first is availability. If the brand doesn’t get the new collections at a time that coincides with global availability, naturally the Indian consumer who is aware and well read will be uncomfortable shopping here. They would go abroad where the latest models are available. One of our first commitments was that the new items would be available here on par with global launches. The second is a matter of choice. Personally, a businessman who works a lot doesn’t get a chance to shop unless on holiday. The third is regarding pricing. Customers find the pricing cheaper abroad and hence they have an incentive to buy there. Our issue is that duties on luxury watches are very high in India hence they can’t be on par with global prices but we try to make the margin as small as possible. Also there is still a slight perception of the Indian consumer that if the item is from

What have been your key selling collections in India?

The French Tank collection and the Santos collections have been very successful.

What are the new trends in the global market?

Watches are getting bigger by the year. Designs are almost becoming kind of unisex. Also, different elements are being used like pink gold, new materials including ceramics like in the Declaration watch etc. There is more creativity also with the aesthetic aspects like the increasing use of diamonds in the watches.

What was the inspiration behind the Santos Dumont?

The first Santos watch was created in 1904 for Alberto Santos Dumont, a Brazilian living in Paris. He was an aviator- a daring, innovative man and was actually the first in the world to have a registered flight. He was a very elegant, well turned out man and a very good friend of Louis Cartier. He requested Louis to create a wristwatch for him, as it was inconvenient to use a pocket watch while flying. It was the first wristwatch to be conceived with a leather strap. Alberto’s fans began to order the Santos as well and it led to a collection. Today we are celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Santos watch so we have come up with new modern models in the Santos Dumont collection. We have three models the .....

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