Maison des Métiers
d'Art Transformed
This traditional farm in La Chaux-de-Fonds is home to an ultra-innovative laboratory where traditional crafts are practiced. Let’s take a look back at 10 years of hybridization between traditional savoir-faire and innovation.
Created in 2014, the Maison des Métiers d’Art is a hub of knowledge and crafts, engaged in a dialog between tradition and technology. It’s a place where watchmaking and jewelry come together, with a threefold objective: to preserve crafts that are in danger of disappearing and help them evolve, to integrate technological innovation into creation, and to pass on this living knowledge to younger generations.
A 17th-century farm transformed into an ultra-modern setting.
In 2011, Cartier acquired this Bernese-style farm and transformed it into a space bathed in light. Today, this site is dedicated to the development and production of prestige watch collections, drawing on a combination of Métiers d’Art, jewelry, and watchmaking expertise. The teams are made up of over fifty employees whose combined talent is reflected in over thirty patents.
Traditional crafts transformed
From enameling to filigree and marquetry, craftsmen are faced with a single constraint: adapting their practice to the infinitely small dimensions of the watch dial. The crafts are divided between the arts of fire, metal, and marquetry. The term “art of fire” refers to enameling techniques. At Cartier, the art of metal takes the form of Etruscan granulation and filigree, which Cartier elevates to the level of jewelry by combining them with gold, platinum, and diamonds. Marquetry is the art of creating patterns from tiny elements of wood, straw, or rose petals.
Cartier continues its commitment to collecting savoir-faire, most often passed down from artisans to apprentices by word of mouth, in order to ensure its longevity and preservation.
Heritage with a bright future
The work of the Maison des Métiers d’Art is marked by a balance between past and future: whether it’s rediscovering a skill, a technique, or a finish, or recreating ancient tools to meet contemporary creative demands. Furthermore, a design office brings together a team of engineers, experts, and technicians whose research combines ultra-specific technologies—micro-fluidics, mechanics, or magnetism—with recent innovations such as 3D printing on gold.