Cartier won't make a smartwatch. Ever.

While tech companies race to release annual updates, Cartier's creative director Marie-Laure Cérède has drawn a hard line. Smartwatches are "too fleeting, too pinned to its time." The brand thinks only in terms of permanence.

That's not stubbornness. It's strategy.

The Scarcity Calculus

Between 1919 and 1970, Cartier produced only 5,829 Tank watches. Fewer than 100 annually until the 1960s. Compare that to Apple's quarterly smartwatch shipments in the millions.

The numbers reveal competing philosophies. One optimizes for volume and obsolescence. The other engineers for rarity and endurance.

Cartier positions itself as "more a jeweler than a watchmaker." That distinction matters. Jewelers create heirlooms. Watchmakers increasingly create gadgets.

Designing for Generations That Don't Exist Yet

Cérède's approach defies conventional product development. She designs watches for "younger generations who may not wear watches today but will want to in the future."

Think about that temporal complexity. She's not chasing current demand. She's anticipating desire that hasn't formed yet.

The 2023 Tressage collection exemplifies this. Nearly half the development time goes into perfecting proportions and ergonomics. Not features. Not connectivity. Physical refinement that transcends technological cycles.

The Permanence Bet

Every brand faces the same tension. Evolve with technology or anchor to timeless design. Most hedge. Cartier commits fully to one side.

The Tank has remained largely unchanged for over a century. The Santos incorporates modern conveniences like QuickSwitch straps, but the aesthetic language stays constant. The Panthère returned after a 13-year hiatus looking essentially identical.

This creates a peculiar market advantage. While smartwatch buyers upgrade every few years, Cartier owners pass pieces down through generations. Different revenue models. Different value propositions. Different definitions of relevance.

What Permanence Actually Costs

Refusing technological integration means accepting limitations. No fitness tracking. No notifications. No software updates. Just time, displayed mechanically.

But those limitations become differentiators. In a world drowning in pings and updates, a watch that only tells time becomes a statement. Not of technological sophistication, but of intentional simplicity.

Cérède frames it clearly: Cartier can't "only look back" but must "imagine how timepieces will live in a new era." The answer isn't adding screens. It's creating objects with "no age."

The Counter-Trend Insight

Most luxury brands chase technological relevance. Cartier found something more valuable: temporal relevance. Objects that work regardless of which decade you open the box.

That requires different thinking. Different manufacturing. Different marketing. Different patience.

The question isn't whether Cartier will eventually cave and make a smartwatch. Cérède has answered that definitively. The better question: How many other industries mistake technological adoption for strategic necessity?

Sometimes standing still is the most radical move available.