Answer the Call: The Cartier Prize for Watchmaking Talents of Tomorrow is Looking for Submissions
The Cartier Watchmaking Institute has been honoring apprentice watchmakers since 1995. Could this be your year?
By Rhonda Riche
Editor-At-Large
I recently attended a special tasting menu hosted by the celebrated London (UK, not Ontario) chef Vivek Singh. It was held in my old neighborhood, and frankly, I barely recognized the area. But instead of wallowing in nostalgia for all the things that have been lost, I experienced a new restaurant and met a great group of people who loved my old neighborhood as much as I did.
The point of this anecdote (other than some name-dropping) is that you can hold space for tradition but still also embrace change. And that’s what Cartier’s Prize for Watchmaking Talents of Tomorrow is all about.
So, if you or someone you know is an apprentice watchmaker in their third and fourth year of vocational training, as well as students on higher vocational watchmaking courses from Switzerland, France, Belgium, and Germany, this could be your/their big break. body
Future Perfect
The award was created in 1995 by the Cartier Watchmaking Institute. The competition is meant to challenge and encourage apprentice watchmakers nearing the end of their initial vocational training, as well as students. And every year, these apprentices are given specific parameters to create a unique timepiece.
Last year, for example, the theme of the competition was “The Magic of the Senses,” and participants were invited to reimagine one of Cartier’s most emblematic mechanisms: the carriage clock.
One of last year’s winners (and a member of Watchonista’s 30 Under 30(ish) class of 2025) was Hugo Mandrillon. A student from the Lycée Edgar Faure in Morteau, France, who won the first prize in the Technicians category for magical creation, Œil du Temps, a telescoping timepiece that he says was inspired by optical effects. As a winner, Mandrillon received a Cartier watch and an invitation for an apprenticeship with the storied Maison. But that’s not all!
All 12 chosen applicants will have up to 80 hours, spread over three months, to develop their project. Throughout this period, they will benefit from an individual mentorship with the expert of their choice, external to Cartier.
Moving Forward
The theme of this year’s competition is “Shifting the Balance: Reading and Perceiving Time Differently.”
Just as the awards are meant to foster future innovation, Cartier has continuously promoted the preservation of its expertise. That is why, in 1993, the Maison inaugurated its Watchmaking Institute in Switzerland, which offers courses in watchmaking, polishing, micro engineering, and mechanics. The theme for the 2025 competition continues to build a bridge between the past and the present.
This year’s theme is “Shifting the Balance: Reading and Perceiving Time Differently.” Entrants will be called upon to create a work based on a pendulette (desk clock) movement, an important part of Cartier’s catalog for over a century.
Participants are free to explore every aspect of the watchmaker’s toolkit for the aesthetic and creative realms of watchmaking, proposing their own personal interpretation that incorporates a movement that expresses this concept.
“For thirty years, the Cartier Prize has embodied the Maison’s commitment to revealing and nurturing future talent, offering watchmaking enthusiasts a springboard to express their vision and uphold the discipline’s legacy of excellence,” explained Karim Drici, Cartier’s Senior VP and Chief Operating Officer. “This competition is a forum for free expression where technique, innovation, and bold creativity converge to shape the watchmaking of tomorrow.”
Sign Me Up
Interested applicants may submit their portfolio (including a presentation video, project description, and sketch) through a dedicated website from September 8th to October 31st.
In early December, after examining the applications, a jury of five watch industry insiders will select six technicians and six apprentices from all the entrants. The 12 chosen candidates will then work with their mentors to produce a final prototype and present a logbook of sketches and photographs.
The 12 finalists will then present their projects to the jury at the Maison des Métiers d’Art, Cartier’s center for savoir-faire, founded in 2014 in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland.
The 12 finalists will then present their projects to the jury at the Maison des Métiers d’Art, Cartier’s center for savoir-faire, founded in 2014 in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland.
Another benefit of the awards is having one’s work introduced to the members of this prestigious jury. The 2025 jury of the Cartier Prize for Watchmaking Talents of Tomorrow is made up of:
• Roy Davidoff, vintage watch specialist and co-founder of Roy & Sacha Davidoff SA
• Pascale Lepeu, Director of the Cartier Collection
• Nathalie Marielloni, Assistant Curator at the Musée International d’Horlogerie
• Pascal Ravessoud, Vice President of the Fondation de la Haute Horlogerie, watch expert and collector
• Kari Voutilainen, independent watchmaker
The awards ceremony will be held in the spring of 2026. For more information, visit the Prix des Talents Horlogers de Demain website.