1917 - Retail, Trade

Retail, Trade

Paris Jeweler Pierre Cartier gives railroad and steamboat heir Morton F. (Freeman) Plant, 65, a two-strand Oriental pearl necklace in exchange for Plant's Renaissance-style New York mansion at Fifth Avenue and 52nd Street (see 1902). Pierre opened the first New York Cartier salon in 1908 on a Fifth Avenue mezzanine; his brother Louis, now 42, designed the first man's wristwatch 10 years ago for French aviator Santos Dumont (it was basically a small pocket watch with a wrist strap; women have worn bracelet watches for decades); Cartier will introduce the Tank watch next year as a tribute to the men of the American Tank Corps, and sales of wrist watches will soon eclipse those of pocket watches as men give up vests in favor of two-piece sack suits. The Fifth Avenue mansion will remain Cartier's headquarters into the 21st century.