Cartier engraved established a sizable niche in more than 170 years of being in the luxury retail business. It produces jewelry – often very expensive jewelry – and has a long history of selling to royalty. King Edward VII called Cartier “the jeweler of kings and king of jewelers,” and at his coronation in 1902, he ordered no less than 27 crowns from the company. That’s good, after all, because Prince Harry will talk to youfor spare parts.
Of course, Cartier’s product line is not one that requires annual hardware or software updates. However, today technology is present in everything and even fashion brands that are not tech-savvy are eager to keep up with the times. For years now, brands like Gucci and Burberry have pioneered the luxury sector’s serious flirtation with e-commerce, invest in gaming Among other things. Now, Cartier is looking to reinvent augmented reality retail. Not with your usual AR, remember. That didn’t happen with the company. No, Cartier decided to try and create its own immersive virtual shopping experience.
Photo: Cartier
An AR trial program that Cartier calls “Glasses,” created in partnership with software developers Jolibrain and Blue Trail Software, is being tested at select Cartier stores around the world. . At this initial stage, it allows customers to view digital rings intended to convincingly simulate the real thing sitting in their hands. There are currently 13 rings available under the Looking Glass program, with prices ranging from about $3,000 to $200,000, though Cartier says it’s in the process of making more rings — and, naturally, the firm. are considering expanding beyond rings to cuffs, bracelets, and yes, possibly watches.
The company includes Ikea and Zenni optics features AR modes that approximate how their digital products look in the real world. Gucci has released an AR feature for Snapchat that lets people try on its shoes. TAG Hauer tested AR . watch demonstration more than a decade ago. However, unlike all the others, Cartier’s AR efforts are not accessible from your phone. It’s just a face-to-face, in-store experience. Despite the times of pandemic uncertainty, Cartier is redoubled efforts to win seats at its retail stores, with the lure of an uplifting experience you can’t get from the comfort of your own home. roof over a sofa or your own study.
Of course, Cartier has experimented with mixed reality before. In 2019, the company tested a observation time turned the jewelry into rotating holograms. Obviously, Cartier has a penchant for mimicking the presence of its very expensive products. Since the company’s merchandise is made of precious stones and metals, which are expensive and often disposable, the company cannot simply move something from store to store. another, from country to country, when a potential customer is interested. When you have to factor in armored trucks, armed guards, store guards and the like, shipping those items around the world is bound to take a lot of resources. However, if you can make an item appear in the store—as if by magic—you can save a lot of time, money, and (probably) carbon emissions. The trouble is, in order to make a sale, you have to create an illusion really? good.
Andrew Haarsager, head of Cartier’s Retail Innovation Lab, invited me to sit down at his desk in a Cartier store in San Francisco to show me how the technology works. It’s a modest setup. The sight glass is a lamp, albeit a very stylish one, located in the corner of the table. Inside is a camera that shoots video into a large iPad next to it. A desktop box rumbles on the floor behind the desk, powering the resource-hungry program. This technology uses GANs, or Innovative Adversarial Networks, which are commonly used to generate deepfake videos.
