s my friend Cyrille Vigneron, the CEO of Cartier, has articulated, “The only certainty is uncertainty.” With this, as with all things, he is 100 percent right. The wildly hedonistic atmosphere of two years ago has reversed course; today we are facing what can only be considered challenging market conditions. But does that mean that people won’t buy watches? Of course not. It just means they are going to be a lot more selective. They are only going to buy watches that express real authenticity and, as Vigneron says, “unique singularity,” meaning that it is the best reference of its category or genre; the way Rolex is the King of Sports, Patek Philippe is the King of Complications, and Cartier is the King of Elegance.
