n 1993, Cartier founded Cartier Watchmaking Institute in Couvet, Switzerland in order to train future watchmakers. The CWI trains apprentices and craftspeople from the Cartier Manufactures in areas such as watchmaking, polishing, microtechnology and mechanics. The pioneering Institute has become a reference in research and support for the next generation of watchmakers.

The Watchmaking Prize was created in 1995 in direct response to the impetus to nurture vocations and ensure continuity. Primarily, it reflects the significance and consistency of Cartier’s commitment to promoting powerful and unique watchmaking, where technical excellence goes hand in hand with boundless creativity.

Each year, this remarkable Prize invites young watchmakers to transform a movement around a given theme. Awards are bestowed both for technical brilliance and creative flair.

“Cartier has always considered that it had an obligation to foster vocations and to nurture talent in order to pass on and promote its watchmaking vision and its commitment to the excellence of the expertise it embodies. Created thirty years ago, the Prize is an outstanding demonstration of this undertaking, and an excellent means of standing alongside the men and women who wish to enter this compelling profession, and who will form the next generation of watchmakers”, explained Karim Drici, Cartier’s Manufacturing Director.

The theme of the 2024 edition is Magic of the Senses

This year, the Prize will extend to cover Belgium and will include a new category of applicants. Originally open to third and fourth-year watchmaking students, now microtechnology students and first- and second-year vocational training students can also apply.

For the 2024 edition, applicants will work on the clock movement, an emblematic watchmaking creation that Cartier has produced for over a century. They will be free to explore all the aesthetic and creative frontiers associated with the theme: Magic of the Senses without constraint, to deliver a personal creation around this movement.

Applicants have until 30 August 2024 to submit their application on the dedicated website. It should include a one-minute video in which they introduce themselves and provide a description of their project, along with a sketch.

In mid-October, after all the submissions have been reviewed, the panel of five watchmaking experts will select 6 technicians and 6 apprentices.

The 12 selected applicants will then have 80 hours in which to develop their project, over a period of two months. Throughout this time, they will receive individual coaching from an external mentor. After the two-months are over, applicants will submit their finished project, as well as a logbook recounting the main stages of their design, supported by sketches and photos. On 16 December 2024, the 12 finalists will present their project before the jury at the Maison des Métiers d’Art in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland.

The prizegiving ceremony will take place in mid-January. The first three laureates in the two categories will receive a Cartier watch and will be invited to explore the Maison’s universe with a visit to several Cartier sites and operations in France and Switzerland. Moreover, the top two winners will be offered a Cartier traineeship.

The jury of the 2024 Cartier Prize for Watchmaking Talents of Tomorrow:

• Roy Davidoff, Collector’s watch specialist and co-founder of Roy & Sacha Davidoff SA
• Nathalie Marielloni, Associate Curator at the International Museum of Horology
• Pierre Rainero, Cartier ‘s Director of Image, Style and Heritage
• Pascal Ravessoud, Vice-President of the High Watchmaking Foundation, specialist
• watchmaker and collector
• Kari Voutilainen, independent watchmaker

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