Vintage Cartier Watch Ads
I shared some vintage Omega and Rolex ads here a while back that I found while flipping through my enormous National Geographic magazine collection. Now it's Cartier's turn.
Check out these Cartier ads from the 1970s/1980s!
Issue: December 1979
Issue November 1980
Issue: November, 1981
Issue: May 1983
Issue November 1983
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Celine
I've worked in different areas of the watch industry over the last 15 years. Now, I'm a freelance luxury watch writer. Instagram @luxwatchwriter. Champion of #ladieswhocrunch.
Laguna Beach, CA, USA
Member since
Last active: 23 hrs ago
Those are great! I really love all kinds of vintage advertising. Thanks for posting these!
When you advertised in National Geographic you were playing the long game. That ad would be seen multiple times over multiple years. Very few magazines were saved as frequently as NG, maybe Look, because its stories did not get old quickly. They were not tied to a news cycle. Cartier had changed very little and expected to change very little. If you picked that up 20 years later Cartier had remained consistent.
I’m obsessed with their drawings you can see in the background. A somewhat recent Hodinkee article shared this from Cartier New York.
When you advertised in National Geographic you were playing the long game. That ad would be seen multiple times over multiple years. Very few magazines were saved as frequently as NG, maybe Look, because its stories did not get old quickly. They were not tied to a news cycle. Cartier had changed very little and expected to change very little. If you picked that up 20 years later Cartier had remained consistent.
That‘s cool to hear and think about. I definitely wouldn’t have pieced anything like that together but it definitely makes sense.
Those are great! I really love all kinds of vintage advertising. Thanks for posting these!
Happy to share what I find in these old magazines :)
When you advertised in National Geographic you were playing the long game. That ad would be seen multiple times over multiple years. Very few magazines were saved as frequently as NG, maybe Look, because its stories did not get old quickly. They were not tied to a news cycle. Cartier had changed very little and expected to change very little. If you picked that up 20 years later Cartier had remained consistent.
100% agree!
The pictures, stories, and especially the maps on the pages of older issues of NG are still impressive today.
I’m obsessed with their drawings you can see in the background. A somewhat recent Hodinkee article shared this from Cartier New York.
I love watch sketches too; so cool to see how they were visualized on paper first.
internet is plastered in watch adds
Thanks for sharing. It’s striking, to me, how little the brand, the watches, the advertising, the fonts have changed. Fashion, tastes and trends may come and go but if you’re onto a winner - it would seem you can transcend those
No celebrity in the ads - just watches! 👌Good old times ^^
I’m obsessed with their drawings you can see in the background. A somewhat recent Hodinkee article shared this from Cartier New York.
Love this! Old school rendering.
very cool love the styling.
I would ❤ this two times if I could.
these watches are now all back in vogue. prices for 80s/90s Cartier watches have increased so quickly!
i would love to put them on the frame 😍. thats beautiful art, all of them
these watches are now all back in vogue. prices for 80s/90s Cartier watches have increased so quickly!
Yep! the resale values of the original vermeil quartz Musts have skyrocketed on the secondary market 🚀
No celebrity in the ads - just watches! 👌Good old times ^^
The watches are the celebrities - especially for a crazy community like us 🤣
It's really cool to see these ads as a blast from the past. There was some controversy a while back around how brands advertised in the distant and near past.
I try to convince myself that I don't need a Must de Cartier Tank. I sold mine around a year and a half ago and I do miss it ⌚😕.
Just some old screen shots.
It's a hell of a classy watch. Now you made me go out and hunt one down 😂!
I try to convince myself that I don't need a Must de Cartier Tank. I sold mine around a year and a half ago and I do miss it ⌚😕.
Just some old screen shots.
It's a hell of a classy watch. Now you made me go out and hunt one down 😂!
I regret not getting one five years ago when dealers were basically giving them away!
It looks so sharp, you must go find another one ✨
I regret not getting one five years ago when dealers were basically giving them away!
It looks so sharp, you must go find another one ✨
“basically giving them away!”
ughhh what a painful sentence to read haha
Thank you for sharing these. Cartier have an amazing ability to transport me back to past times like no other watch. They make me think of smokey jazz bars in Paris and old school Hollywood glamour ❤️
Very cool!