Interview: Cyrille Vigneron, Cartier CEO, On Keeping A 175-Year-Old Company Nimble

By Jack Forster

Cyrille Vigneron comes across both affable and almost self-effacing at first, with the air of an academic – someone fascinated by late Medieval German literature, perhaps, or the intricacies of interpreting Sumerian cuneiform tablets. The reality, of course, is very different: Vigneron is the CEO of Cartier, the jewel in the crown of the Richemont Group. He’s held the post since 2015 (he was Director General Cartier Europe, as well, from 2005 to 2013). Although the impression of professorial introspection is not entirely incorrect (it’s not every luxury brand global CEO who leads brand statements with a quote from Milan Kundera) at the same time, he’s responsible for ensuring that the behemoth of a company that is Cartier is able to respond nimbly and rapidly to changing conditions – kind of like trying to get a supertanker to turn like a racing yacht.

HODINKEE caught up with Vigneron at the Cartier booth at Watches & Wonders 2022, in Geneva. “Booth” is a deceiving term – with floor space to match its place in the Group, the Cartier booth is like a series of nested jewel boxes, and like jewel boxes, each room contains its own cornucopia of treasures.

HODINKEE: After two years, we had some reservations about the necessity of physical trade shows, but this week we’re starting to feel like there’s no real substitute for seeing watches and people in person.

Cyrille Vigneron: Yes. I think what we see here in this week is that, when everything is at once physical and people can meet each other, there is a different atmosphere and vibration. So there is nothing that can replace that. Then the question would be, having a world show compared to regional ones. There was, last year, the Watches and Wonders in Shanghai, with a lot of attraction, as well. So the fact is that to have something physical, I think, comes to be something that we need.

Watches like the cushion-based Coussin and Masse Mystérieuse, if you don’t have a chance to actually feel them you miss something.

Even this one [the Mass Mystérieuse] if you cannot touch it, you don’t see that it flips, you don’t feel the weight … there’s some part where, before you see them physically, it’s difficult to really figure out the right size …read more