By the time Cyrille Vigneron became the president and chief executive of Cartier in 2016, the French jeweller and watchmaker had lost a bit of its lustre. “Back in 2015-2016, Cartier was seen as an ageing brand – something good for your mother or aunt, outdated and not for the younger generations,” he says of the crown jewel of the Richemont Group – the luxury conglomerate that also owns brands such as Van Cleef & Arpels and Jaeger-LeCoultre. “But the products are timeless so there’s no reason for that. For other brands, [historic] items like the Chanel [2.55] bag or the Rolex Oyster Perpetual or the Hermès Birkin are popular with young people. Just because something is old it doesn’t mean it can’t be cool.” The thinking at the time, he explains in an interview from Geneva, Switzerland, was that you had to release endless new products to appeal to millennials and Gen-Z consumers, and you had to always be on the lookout for the next cool thing. He was adamant, however, that it was the wrong strategy, especially for a brand like Cartier. “It was a question of what the brand represents and going back to what makes it distinctive,” he says. Founded in Paris in 1847 by Louis-François Cartier, the company boasts iconic designs both in its jewellery and watchmaking divisions. From the Love and Juste un Clou bracelets to the Tank and Panthère watches, Cartier’s repertoire of timeless pieces is easily recognisable and has achieved cult status among luxury lovers. Vigneron says that the key assets of a luxury label are “brand equity and brand desirability”, which he and his team worked to restore to make Cartier “fresh and cool again”. He also made the decision to equalise prices globally. Rather than targeting tourists looking for bargains, Cartier started to focus on its local consumers long before it became a necessity because of travel bans following the coronavirus pandemic . Cartier, along with other brands that eschew trends and offer timeless designs, such as Chanel , Hermès, Rolex and Audemars Piguet, has come out of the pandemic almost unscathed. “The pandemic has given a leading edge to the strongest brands with iconic designs and, because they’re timeless, you buy them now and won’t regret it tomorrow – and you can pass it down to your children,” says Vigneron. “It has slowed things down. We have gone from instant gratification, and buying something impulsively because it’s cool, to reflecting [before buying a luxury item]. People want the reassuring value of what lasts and what has true meaning.” Vigneron, however, is not trying to paint a rosy picture of the roller-coaster ride that the last two years have been. While Europe and the United States seem to be out of the woods and have lifted most restrictions, the same cannot be said about countries such as China, where lockdowns and social-distancing measures are still widespread. “The pandemic has put enormous stress on people at different times, like at the beginning of the year in Hong Kong or now in China, while Europe is opening up and people are going out more and ending the [vaccine] passes,” says Vigneron. Border closures in Asia have affected Vigneron on a personal level. Before becoming CEO of Cartier he had lived in Japan for more than a decade, but he has not been able to travel to Greater China and Tokyo, which he calls his “second home”, for more than two years. “My wife is Japanese and my children were born in Japan. I would go there three times a year and at least once to Hong Kong, Seoul, Shanghai, so not being able to go has been heartbreaking,” says Vigneron, who speaks fluent Japanese and has even written a book about the country. “If borders are closed and people can’t travel, it’s out of your control, so what do you do? As a global CEO, the pandemic has challenged the way we do things,” he says. “Those companies that have a long-term view and short-term adaptability have done better.” Uncertainty these days, however, is not just limited to the impact of the pandemic. The recent war in Ukraine, which began in late February after Russian forces entered the country and started attacking cities such as Kyiv and Odesa, has led luxury groups, including Richemont, to stop selling their coveted goods in Russia . China matters to luxury brands – CEOs tell us why For Cartier, the war hit closer to home as the brand, along with other top jewellery labels, sourced diamonds from Alrosa, one of the largest diamond suppliers in the world, which is controlled by the Russian Federation. Cartier subsequently stopped sourcing diamonds from the company in March. As a founding member of the Responsible Jewellery Council, Cartier has been actively involved in cleaning up the previously murky supply chain for diamonds, which have often been a point of contention because of their provenance from countries like Angola and Ivory Coast, where “conflict diamonds” or “blood diamonds” are mined to finance warlords and insurgents. “Even though the Kimberley Process defines conflict diamonds as [those] supporting rebel forces trying to destabilise a government like in Africa or the Taliban in Afghanistan, this is a war, a conflict, people are dying,” says Vigneron. “We have to call these conflict diamonds , so Alrosa should be suspended from the Responsible Jewellery Council because you have to guarantee from A to Z that there are no conflict diamonds.” Cartier and Richemont stepped down from the council in response to its initial unwillingness to suspend Alrosa, and created a task force to enforce accountability and a review of the body’s practices, which eventually led to Alrosa suspending its own membership. Vigneron says that the crisis in Ukraine has forced jewellers to take a closer look at their supply chains and to take action. “The process was very opaque but now because of the sanctions we will be forced to have full transparency.” He adds that this focus on social responsibility and sustainability is also enhanced by technology, which plays a vital role even for a brand that prizes craftsmanship and makes one-of-a-kind creations that can cost millions of euros. “For a jewellery brand like Cartier, technology and technique should serve the design but be as invisible and as seamless as possible,” says Vigneron. In other words, don’t expect Cartier to release a smartwatch any time soon. “A few years ago everyone was saying that younger generations want connected watches, but that doesn’t work for us because we do timeless designs,” he says. “If you have a movement that’s an electronic module, it will get outdated in a few years. We can make a luxury product, but the technology gets so outdated so it just doesn’t work.” To show how timeless design and technology can be a perfect match, Vigneron brings up a new version of the Tank Must watch that features a SolarBeat movement powered by sunlight. “There’s no battery inside; the energy comes from the sun and lasts for 16 years,” he says. “We apply the best technology to the oldest design and do something that will be durable and have a low impact on the environment.” Vigneron gets visibly excited when talking about how technology, craftsmanship and sustainability define Cartier in the 21st century. From a carbon-negative factory in the works in Northern Italy to helping small family-owned subcontractors in Europe learn how to make things in a sustainable way, the chief executive holds forth about the many initiatives that the brand is involved in and doesn’t necessarily advertise to the public. “We talk about it but only when we can prove that it works and when we know we can do it,” he says. On the day of this interview, which took place on Earth Day on April 22, Cartier joined the CEO Carbon Neutral Challenge, launched in 2019 by Gucci chief executive Marco Bizzarri to force global companies to become carbon neutral. While Vigneron is aware that reaching that goal any time soon is a tall order, he has made “transparency” and “commitment” two of the pillars of the Cartier ethos, while also injecting new life into one of the most beloved jewellery brands in the world.