Earlier this year, Cartier introduced a new watch for men, Calibre de Cartier. A few years ago, Cartier introduced the Santos 100 to fulfil the demand for a more masculine watch, the Calibre de Cartier is their next-gen masculine watch with in-house movement. And perhaps this new model does the trick even better!

I tried on the Calibre de Cartier during one of their events and I must say that I was quite impressed by the look and feel of this watch and perhaps just as important, the price tag. A list price of just below 5K Euro makes this watch an interesting competitor for the ‘usual suspects’ as a stainless steel Rolex, in-house Panerai or IWC. However, what does it mean to be a Cartier man? Will it still be a design statement? Or will people hold you for someone who wants to make a (design) statement but has no love for watches? Cartier is easily matched to jewellery and quartz watches for women, at least by the ignorant.

I think that Cartier did a great job on the introduction of the Santos 100. Not to everyone’s liking, but at least it was a masculine watch that you could be seen with. I think this watch actually helped people getting over the idea that Cartier is a brand dedicated to women’s jewellery and wrists. Now, the Calibre de Cartier, as you can see in the video above, is a watch dedicated for the men who love mechanics and great design. One way or another, the case has some resemblance of a Panerai Luminor Marina because of the solid lugs and bulky crown guard, but it could perfectly be that this is just me.

The mechanics inside the Calibre the Cartier is the all new developed caliber 1904 MC. A simple yet effective automatic winding movement, with hours, minutes, (small) seconds and a date feature. A number of brands decided to develop their own movements again, and with CAD technology and smart sourced knowledge they are at least able to do so (again). I assume that Cartier will be using the 1904 MC movement as a base calibre for future mechanical movement with complications and as their default movement for other watches in their line-up as well.

The dial, case, crown guard, crown (with cabochon crystal) and alligator strap are finished to the highest standards. Very Cartier-ish is also the dial lay-out, with roman numerals on the upper half of the dial and ‘stick’ hour markers on the lower half of the dial. The minuterie is also done very nicely and the Swiss Made printing and two L’s to indicate the use of Luminova doesn’t disturb it at all. The only thing I am not particularly fond about is the date window showing 3 dates, as we also can see on the IWC Flieger Chronograph models for example.

Perhaps the question isn’t “What does it take to be a Cartier man?” but “Do you dare to be a Cartier man?”. I probably would dare it, as long as they keep creating watches like this stunning Calibre de Cartier for men.

Steltman Watches is one of the most famous watch stores in The Hague (The Netherlands). Famous for their impressive list of brands which they represent, like Lange & Soehne, Patek Philippe, Cartier, Jaeger-LeCoultre, Blancpain, Officine Panerai and more. But also famous for their lack of customer friendliness. My watch friend Frank (from the superb monochrome.nl blog) visited Steltman Watches last saturday, and it is unbelievable what kind of attitude this salesclerk allowed himself to express. I even think this guy is the owner of the store, so complaining to the management probably won’t help. Luckily, we have forums and blogs to at least prepare people on what they can expect when visiting stores with this kind of ‘service’.

Please visit Monochrome to read the full story as a nice example on how to NOT treat a potential customer, but at least I want to quote some of it here at Fratello:

The core of the story is this:
“The salesman was Andrew Brom, the son of the owner of Steltman Watches. He told me he had seen me in the shop before and asked if i had bought a watch there before. I said i didn?��Ǩ�Ѣt. Than he asked me if he should invest his time in me, since I had never bought a watch there?��Ǩ��.”

Maybe it looks a bit dull/lame to post these kind of experiences, but I happen to know this store and its way of treating customers (since I reside near The Hague) and it is a very recognizable story. So, I hear you think, Steltman may have a point.. someone who visited the store a few times (but to a maximum of 2 times a year, as Frank wrote) and never bought anything. However, that’s something you need to accept as a storeowner. Anyway, in one of the comments to Frank’s blogpost, Edwin H. responded with a similar experience. I will quote some text from his repsonse too, but I suggest you read it all over at Monochrome:

“I was wearing my Datograph during this visit and Mr. Brom was aware of that (as I had the Datograph laying in front of me on the countertop for everyone to see ?��Ǩ��� he already made a remark as to which watch I was wearing) and I?��Ǩ�Ѣm 99.9% positive that Mr. Brom knew I owned 3 Lange & S?ɬ?hne watches at that time already.

Well ?��Ǩ�� here I was standing next to the counter holding the ros?ɬ� gold Lange-1 in my hands and telling the salesclerk how much I admired that piece. Mr. Brom walked by and heard me say something about the Lange and he replied ?��Ǩ?�?��Ǩ��Well Mr. H., don?��Ǩ�Ѣt you think it is time that we [Steltman Watches] are going to benefit from your love for Lange Uhren?��Ǩ��?��Ǩ�� ?��Ǩ�� I shook my head in disbelieve and he continued with ?��Ǩ?�?��Ǩ��you have visited us 6 times now and never ever purchased something from us?��Ǩ��.”

I do not want to curse on this blog, but WTF? What kind of books did he read? Let me be so free to offer a few solutions for this problem (because there obviously is one). My first solution is quite simple, just type in www.amazon.com in your favorite webbrowser (or click the hyperlink for that matter) and select the ‘Killer Customer Care’ book. For only 16,95 USD you can make a big difference for your customers.

My other suggestion is a bit more expensive, but I strongly believe in ‘?�?�bung macht den Meister’ which is a German saying which I will freely translate in “Mastering by doing” or “Mastering by practicing”. Therefore, I suggest that the sales guy takes a course in becoming customer friendly. I found this training over at Infopeople.org. Go there, and select the course “Customer-Friendly Is More Than an Attitude“.

I wonder however, if this isn’t a bit too advanced, reading the introduction page. It mentions that being customer-friendly requires more than a smile and a pleasant manner. The latter seems to be regarded as one of the basics, so probably a tailor made ‘fixing the basics’-course might be required before enrolling into this course. Perhaps that the brands that they sell can offer such a training, providing their own Mr.Miyagi kind of tutor, to fix the whole thing, because I assume that brands like Patek Philippe, Lange & Soehne and Blancpain expects the best from their dealers.

Dutch/Belgian readers who might want to read some more about the Steltman experience, can click here. This Dutch forum has enough examples since 2006.

Starting on the 19th of January, the annual SIHH is being held in Geneva. The SIHH, Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie, represents a number of fine watch manufacturers like Audemars Piguet, Officine Panerai, Jaeger LeCoultre, Vacheron Constantin and a few more. One of them is Cartier. Cartier once started out as a jeweler and in the 1900s, it was one of the first to create a wrist watch. I think everyone knows (or should know) the Santos-Dumont story.

Anyway, I didn’t classify Cartier as being a haute horlogerie brand for a long time. I just recently became interested in the brand, after talking to Treo. Treo is the owner of a dedicated Cartier website called Troisanneaux. After talking to him, I ordered the book ‘Cartier – The Tank Watch‘. This watch is to me, the classic rectangular wrist watch.

One of the more recent Cartier models is the Ballon Bleu watch. I was actually quite stunned by this model and I still don’t know if it’s a gents or ladies watch. With 42mm, I assume it is the first one. However, and this goes for most Cartier watches, there is an ETA movement ticking inside. Although I think that these ETA movements have proven themselves over time and can be qualified as reliable and sturdy movement, it bugs me a little bit that these expensive Cartier watches have an ETA movement inside. Perhaps I am still one of the few who is bothered by paying more than x Euro for an ETA driven wristwatch and is it becoming silly, I don’t know . What I do know, is that the design of these Cartier watches, the finish of the dials and the beautiful (and typical) crown are compensating for this.

The design of Cartier watches is almost indisputable. Wonderful created cases, most of the time in precious metals like white gold. Guilloche dials with stunning designs. These watches are like art . But given the fact that movementwise, these watches are hardly any special, would you buy one just for the superb design? If the price is right, I probably will add a Cartier Santos Galbee in my collection in the (far) future. It is the classic rectangular watch imho.

Do you consider Cartier watches as jewellery or as haute horlogerie? Please share your thoughts with me by clicking on ‘Comments’ below.