Louis Cartier

French jeweller and watchmaker, the grandson of Louis-François Cartier (founder of Cartier, a French luxury company) and son of Alfred Cartier.

Louis Cartier joined his father in the Cartier house in 1898, the year that marks the beginning of the international development of the brand (to India, where Maharajahs were customers). While Louis supported his father in the Paris store, his brothers Jacques and Pierre opened branches in London and New York.

He created a design studio in the company and introduced the use of platinum, a metal harder than gold and silver, complicated to work with but lighter to wear.

In 1904, Louis Cartier, with the help of the German Hans Wilsdorf (1881-1960), created a bracelet watch for his friend, the aviator Alberto Santos-Dumont, who had complained about the difficulty of looking at his pocket watch in full flight. This model was marketed from 1911 under the name Santos.

He married twice and had a long affair with jeweller Jeanne Toussaint whom his family forbade him to marry. He died on 23 July 1942 at age 67 in Paris.