Cartier 'Baignoire Watch' 2023 Ad Campaign

Review of Cartier ‘Baignoire Watch’ 2023 Ad Campaign by Photographer Jacob Sutton with model Lou Doillon

Cartier celebrates a larger-than-life legacy of luxury watchmaking with a new campaign starring Lou Doillon. The singer and model (and daughter of Jane Birkin) is captured by photographer Jacob Sutton for the campaign that celebrates the brand’s Baignoire watch.

Introduced in in 1912 but reimagined in its distinctive “curved oval” shape in 1958, and renamed as the Baignoire in 1973, the star timepiece stands as an emblem of the iconic jewelry house’s historical design practice that has evolved yet stayed true to its values of precision and power. The campaign visually draws on this legacy.

Sutton’s imagery plays with perspective and scale, shrinking down the stature of Doillon or blowing up that of the watch so that it dwarfs her in size, creating a kind of playground or landscape for her to playfully explore. Meanwhile, other images take shape as simple portraits, showing off the versatility and personality of the piece.

The styling work from Marine Braunschvig also goes a long way in pushing the campaign’s ideal of timeless Parisian style, drawing on moments like Yves Saint Laurent’s boundary-pushing tuxedo and the liberated glamor of the 70s to dress Doillon as the ultimate embodiment of a classic-yet-contemporary French fashion aesthetic.

By blowing up the ideas of proportionality and contrast that are so essential in the design process, Cartier creates a fun yet thoughtful homage of craft precision. Coupling this practice with a stylish and vivid personality, the campaign forms a bold statement of the house’s untouchable place among the history of fine jewelry.