Jean-Jacques Cartier (1919–2010) was the grandson of Alfred Cartier and the last member of the founding family to run Cartier London, heading the branch at 175 New Bond Street from the post-war years until the family sold its interest in the business.
Born in 1919 in the months immediately following the First World War, he completed his Cartier training in Paris under Charles Jacqueau, who was then director of creation at the house. When war broke out on 1 September 1939, the twenty-year-old Jean-Jacques, nearing the end of his military service, had all leave cancelled indefinitely. He had, as the book recounts, "absolutely no idea when, or even whether, he would ever make it home." After the war, on 4 January 1946, he boarded the SS Sacramento bound for New York to meet his uncle Pierre and begin planning the future of the London branch. He then took over at 175 New Bond Street, whose clientele included the royal family. Among the pieces made under his direction was a diamond flower brooch set with a 26-carat pink Williamson diamond, which remained a favourite with Queen Elizabeth II; Princess Margaret subsequently commissioned her own version from Cartier London.
In the Swinging Sixties, with wealth distributed differently than in earlier decades and a prevailing mood of rebellion against establishment luxury, the traditional market for grand jewellery was a more difficult proposition. Jean-Jacques, an artist at heart who had studied at the École des Arts Décoratifs, turned his creative energy toward the design of watches and smaller objects. He worked closely with head designer Rupert Emmerson on two pieces that would come to define the branch's reputation among collectors: the Cartier Crash, first produced in 1967, which deliberately distorted every convention of watch form, and the Cartier Pebble, produced in the early 1970s, which followed a similar logic of formal invention. Both were made in small numbers by hand in the Wright & Davies workshop in Clerkenwell and have become among the most coveted vintage watches on the market. Both are explored further on the blog: the Crash's record-setting sale and the Pebble and Jean-Jacques Cartier. A collection assembled around pieces from this London period is examined in 88 Cartier Watches in 1 Collection.
He died in 2010. The book The Cartiers, published in 2019 (one hundred years after his birth), draws on memoirs and interviews recorded with him directly.
Sources
- Francesca Cartier Brickell, The Cartiers (Random House, 2019).
- "Jean-Jacques Cartier obituary", The Guardian, 21 March 2011.
