For Louis Ferla, taking the helm of Cartier in September 2024 must have felt like going from piloting a superyacht to commanding a cruise liner.
After seven years atop Vacheron Constantin, the Geneva watchmaker with about 1,250 employees, Mr. Ferla was appointed chief executive at Cartier. It is the crown jewel of Compagnie Financière Richemont’s jewelry houses, where he now oversees a work force of more than 10,000.
“It’s fantastic to be back at Cartier,” Mr. Ferla said during an interview at the maison’s headquarters in the Eighth Arrondissement of Paris, his first English-language interview since assuming the top job. “I spent a decade at Cartier before moving to Vacheron Constantin. So I had a bit of Cartier blood in me even before I joined.”
Mr. Ferla, 50, has spent nearly half his life — 24 years — with Richemont. Born in France, he began his professional career in 2001 with Alfred Dunhill, a Richemont luxury goods brand, in Hong Kong (he is fluent in Mandarin). He joined Cartier in 2006, taking on senior roles across the Middle East, India and Africa before becoming chief executive of Cartier China six years later.
In 2015, he was appointed Cartier’s international business and client development director, and joined its International Executive Committee; two years later, he was made chief executive of Vacheron Constantin. (He still lives in Geneva.)
“You can call me a Richemont baby,” Mr. Ferla said.
At Cartier he succeeded Cyrille Vigneron, who became the chairman of Cartier Culture & Philanthropy after leading the jewelry house for more than eight years.
The stakes are high for Mr. Ferla in his new role, as Cartier has been thriving in a turbulent luxury market.
While Richemont does not break out results by brand, its jewelry division — which includes Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels, Buccellati and Vhernier — reported collective sales of 15.3 billion euros ($17.7 billion) for the fiscal year that ended March 31, up from €14.2 billion in the preceding fiscal year.
‘To Give Back’
Cartier’s strong performance within Richemont’s jewelry division has given it the means to invest in its cultural legacy. On Oct. 20, the evening before this interview, Mr. Ferla attended a celebration of the Fondation Cartier pour l’Art Contemporain’s new home in the First Arrondissement of Paris, opposite the Louvre. (The foundation, which owns almost 1,500 works by more than 350 artists, also is maintaining its original site on Boulevard Raspail, in the 14th Arrondissement.)
The new art center is a redesign of a former shopping and office space by the French architect Jean Nouvel that reportedly cost Cartier more than €200 million. It opened to the public on Oct. 25, and includes 6,500 square meters (70,000 square feet) of exhibition space.
Mr. Ferla said he considered the foundation’s expansion to be a continuation of Cartier’s community engagement. “Cartier represents a spirit of innovation and exploration born when the three Cartier brothers set out around the world,” he said, referring to a period in the early 1900s when the house established operations in London and New York. “It’s our duty to give back to the community and to share our sense of beauty, audacity and innovation.”
Still, he has taken on the house’s leadership at a time of great change in the watch and jewelry industry.
Gold prices have surged to record highs at more than $4,000 an ounce; diamond prices have dropped more than 25 percent since their 2022 peak and artificial intelligence has been reshaping processes ranging from design to manufacturing.
Markets also have been changing, with demand for luxury goods in China slowing and U.S. tariffs on Swiss goods — reduced earlier this month to 15 percent from a crippling 39 percent — still threatening to drag exports to what has been Swiss watches’ top market for several years.
Every Aspect of Business
Amid these shifting global dynamics, Mr. Ferla’s first year at Cartier was devoted to streamlining operations, reinforcing teamwork and sharpening strategic priorities. “We have examined every aspect of our business, asking what’s most relevant, where to focus our energy and defining clear priorities that everyone shares across the organization,” he said.
That same discipline, he added, now guides Cartier’s communications strategy. “We asked whether we need to do everything we do or if doing less, but better, would have more impact,” he said. “That’s how we built the new Panthère campaign and supported key projects like the Mostra in Venice, the Women’s Pavilion in Osaka and the new Cartier Foundation in Paris.”
The Panthère, or panther, one of the house’s signature motifs, was reimagined in a global campaign called “Under the Open Sky.” It included the jungle cat prowling across large outdoor screens in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and urban settings such as Place Vendôme in Paris and Shibuya Crossing in Tokyo.
Mr. Ferla is expected to maintain, at least for now, his predecessor’s strategy of streamlining fine jewelry and watch collections, and emphasizing classic products. “I’ve learned over my years at Cartier that we need time to develop collections,” he said. “We’re now working on releases set for after 2030.”
Oliver R. Müller, the founder and chief executive of the watch consultancy LuxeConsult in Switzerland, said Mr. Vigneron “has done an excellent job and left a very clear road map.”
“Ferla knows exactly what not to do: take the brand off course,” he added. “Cartier doesn’t need to be repositioned, it’s already immensely successful, a real ‘machine de guerre,’ but it can’t run on autopilot either. Ferla’s task will be to keep the brand constantly reinvented without restructuring it.”
The house recently introduced several products, most of which were in development before Mr. Ferla’s appointment. A flexible, articulated reinterpretation of its best-selling Love bracelet, called Love Unlimited, debuted in September with a glossy marketing campaign directed by Sofia Coppola and starring Jacob Elordi. And two watches were added this year to the Santos de Cartier collection, one in ultralight titanium and the other in steel with a black Super-LumiNova dial.
“Watchmaking plays a vital role for the maison,” said Mr. Ferla, who wore an ultrathin white gold Ballon Bleu with a blue dial on his wrist. And so does preserving the specialties that define Cartier’s savoir-faire.
“Craftsmanship is by essence what we are doing,” he said. “We recently counted 212 different métiers just on the manufacturing side.”
High jewelry, featuring the one-of-a-kind creations that combine exceptional gemstones, master craftsmanship and artistic design, has long been an expression of that expertise. “High jewelry is very aspirational for our craftspeople,” he said. “It’s where they can express the best of their art.”
A Product Balance
Mr. Ferla said his priority, however, was maintaining a balance across all of Cartier’s product lines.
“Our jewelry business is very important, but so are watchmaking, perfume and leather goods,” he said. “Every category has a role to play. Some clients may not be able to afford a high-jewelry piece, but they are still proud to own a Cartier creation.”
He also described his commitment to ensuring the house goes “beyond legal requirements” in fulfilling the environmental commitments that it made as a co-founder of the Responsible Jewelry Council, the founder of initiatives such as Cartier Philanthropy and Cartier for Nature, and a partner in the Watch & Jewelry Initiative 2030 to advance industrywide sustainability efforts.
Already, he said “almost 99 percent of the gold we use is recycled, and we maintain very high traceability on all our stones.”
“When clients walk into Cartier, they want to enjoy the moment of shopping for a special occasion,” he said. “They rarely ask about sourcing, but it’s a given that they can trust us to be responsible.”
Looking to the year ahead, Mr. Ferla likened his role at Cartier to that of a maestro, guiding its talent toward a shared vision. “This is like an orchestra,” he said. “We all work in our respective fields, but we must all move in the same direction, with the same goal, to ensure that we fulfill the client’s expectations.”
And every decision, he said, must be focused on achieving client satisfaction.
“Our job is to make sure that when clients enter our boutique, they enjoy an experience full of pleasure and emotion,” he said. “For us, Cartier is a human adventure.”
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