Style Is Forever

Cartier Director of Image, Style, and Heritage Pierre Rainero waxes lyrical about his more than 30 years of history with the brand

- ASHOK SOMAN

When it comes to timepieces, fine or otherwise, style is often not part of the package...at least not style as defined here by the Oxford dictionary, which goes something like this: a distinctive appearance, typically determined by the principles according to which something is designed. Of course, if one looks at Mirriam-Webster, one finds something a little more useful to the idea of style and watchmaking: a distinctive quality, form, or type of something. That one is succinct and perhaps best suited when it comes to introducing a man for whom style is his entire job...well, a part of it at least.

Helpfully, Pierre Rainero, Director of Image, Style and Heritage at Cartier, has published his own definition of style, which I have referenced on more than one occasion. It will now come home to roost, which I find most gratifying. "Style is the incarnation of a philosophy that conveys complex things in a simple way. It has its own sensibility, and thus becomes a way of anticipating, experiencing, and communicating feelings and emotions - style, perhaps, is simply the expression of a vision." Rainero wrote that in his chapter in the Flamarion hardcover Cartier: The Power of Style (2010).

Combining image and heritage with style, and you might think that Rainero is the de facto creative or artistic director, but that is not the case. No such role exists at Cartier, although his title originally was Communication and Artistic Director back in 1999. In fact, Rainero has held a number of roles at Cartier since 1984, when he first joined. It was a time of change at the storied jewellery and watch firm, and Rainero has had a front seat alongside the great names of that time...Perrin, Cologni, Fornas... We sat down with Rainero to hear his story at Watches and Wonders Geneva 2023.

You have a rather impressive title, which you have held since 2003. Tell us about it?