Editor’s Note
This article explores a significant shift in watch culture, where timepieces are increasingly worn as stackable jewelry and status symbols, particularly among younger consumers. It highlights how brands like Cartier are rising in prominence, driven by celebrity influence and changing aesthetic preferences.
This emerging trend represents Gen Z’s dramatic shift from chunky steel sports watches toward smaller, predominantly gold dressier timepieces worn as jewelry rather than pure utility, with Cartier’s Panthere overtaking Rolex as the generation’s most coveted watch brand. Taylor Swift’s engagement appearance wearing a “rare gold and diamond Cartier watch” (discontinued Santos Demoiselle) catalyzed this transformation, with Cartier’s Gen Z market share on Chrono24 jumping from 1.7% (2018) to 6.8% (first half 2025). The trend reflects fundamental repositioning of watches from functional accessories toward jewelry-like status symbols, with consumers “stacking them like bracelets” and treating timepieces as fashion items comparable to handbags in both pricing (mini steel Panthere at £3,500/$4,600) and styling versatility.
Taylor Swift’s engagement watch choice “sent fans into frenzy” beyond the diamond ring, with her wearing discontinued Santos Demoiselle “cementing brand as Gen Z’s most wanted” and demonstrating celebrity influence on luxury goods consumption patterns. Swift joins other cultural icons like Kim Kardashian (whose Love bracelet promotion decade ago laid groundwork) in making Cartier aspirational for younger demographics. This celebrity validation transforms specific models into “It-girl watches” driving demand through social media virality and cultural relevance beyond traditional luxury marketing.
As “price of handbags has skyrocketed, consumers, particularly younger buyers, have turned to jewellery” with Cartier watches positioned at comparable entry points to designer bags enabling substitution. Richemont’s strategy of “maintaining entry level prices” (£3,500 steel Panthere) makes luxury watches accessible alternative to inaccessible handbag pricing. This displacement creates new value equation where watches offer superior investment, heirloom potential, and daily wearability versus bags, fundamentally shifting luxury spending allocation.
Cartier “doesn’t segment watches by gender” with models like Panthere and Santos designed for universal appeal, worn by both women “stacking like bracelets” and men including “ambassador Timothee Chalamet.” The gender-neutral positioning (approximately 55% male, 45% female sales) maximizes addressable market while aligning with Gen Z’s rejection of rigid gendering in fashion and accessories. This inclusive design strategy enables single models to achieve mass cultural penetration rather than limiting appeal through demographic segmentation.
The convergence of Taylor Swift’s cultural dominance, handbag pricing crisis, and social media’s jewelry-focused aesthetic creates perfect conditions for dainty watch revival displacing decade of sports watch supremacy. CEO Cyrille Vigneron’s strategic transformation (2016-2024) repositioning Cartier from “complicated timepieces” toward “heritage of unusual shaped yet expertly crafted models” aligned with Gen Z’s preference for distinctive, photogenic accessories. The 2017 Panthere relaunch campaign by Sofia Coppola set to Donna Summer’s “I Feel Love” perfectly “tapped into Gen Z zeitgeist” through nostalgic yet contemporary aesthetic that social media amplified.
After decade of “chunky sports watches, led by Rolex” dominating luxury market, Gen Z demonstrates clear preference shift toward “smaller, predominantly gold models” representing aesthetic exhaustion with masculine, bulky styling. The fatigue reflects generational rejection of their parents’ status symbols combined with desire for more refined, versatile pieces suitable for Instagram aesthetics. This cyclical reaction creates opening for brands like Cartier offering dramatically different design language from dominant players.
Vigneron’s masterstroke involved inviting “customers with existing Pantheres to bring them back, repaired for free with two-year warranty” causing “many women to fix watches languishing unworn and give them to daughters or granddaughters, creating new generation of fans.” The intergenerational transfer strategy built authenticity and emotional connection impossible through pure marketing while establishing aspirational vintage culture. This heritage activation creates supply of covetable vintage pieces driving secondary market interest that feeds back into new watch demand.
Cartier’s success reflects “popularity with influencers and on TikTok” where visually distinctive models like Panthere photograph exceptionally well in wrist stack videos and outfit content. The platform’s algorithm favors jewelry-focused fashion content where watches function as finishing details in styled compositions. This discovery mechanism privileges aesthetically-distinct, photogenic designs over subtle sports watches that don’t register visually in social feeds.