Trinity is the quiet one, and the oldest design in this grid. Cartier says the Trinity ring was imagined by Louis Cartier in 1924: three bands in three golds, rolling around each other. I think it is the easiest Cartier piece to wear every day, because the white, yellow and rose gold go with whatever else you have on. Here it is as the classic ring, the small ring, the Trinity earrings and the Trinity bracelet on a black cord, which is the lightest way into the line.

Panthère is the opposite in temperament. The panther first appeared on a Cartier wristwatch in 1914, and it has prowled through the house's jewellery ever since. The small Panthère de Cartier ring curls a gold cat around the finger, with green tsavorite eyes and an onyx nose, and the pendant gives you the same face on a chain. Clash de Cartier, launched in 2019, is the newest of the three, with studs and beads that look a little punk next to everything else. I chose the rose gold ring with onyx and the mini hoops.

A pairing tip: Trinity works with anything, so start there if you are building a set. What I would skip is mixing Panthère and Clash on the same hand. Both are loud in their own way, and together they argue.

The Tank was created by Louis Cartier in 1917, and the shape is still the simplest thing in the shop: a rectangle with two bars down the sides, the case sitting flat on the wrist. I picked the Tank Must on a black leather strap, which is the easiest place to start, the Tank Française on a steel bracelet, and a pre-owned Tank Anglaise from Bloomingdale's.

The Santos de Cartier is older still. Cartier says Louis Cartier designed it in 1904 for the aviator Alberto Santos-Dumont, who wanted to read the time without letting go of the controls, and its square case shows its screws on the bezel. Here it is in the medium model in steel. The Panthère watch, first made in the 1980s, is small and supple, almost a bracelet. The Ballon Bleu has a round case with a blue cabochon on the crown, in the 33 mm model and a pre-owned 28 mm, and the Baignoire mini, an oval case in yellow gold, is the most dressy of all the Cartier watches here.

A practical test: try a watch with the sleeve you wear most. A slim Tank or Baignoire slides under a shirt cuff, while a Santos sits better on a bare wrist or a rolled sleeve. What I would skip is choosing by photos alone. Watches change size on the wrist, so read the case measurements first.

Cartier sunglasses are the lightest commitment in this edit, and probably the one most people overlook. The house borrows its own vocabulary here: the C Décor and Signature C frames put a small C at the hinge, the Panthère cat eye carries the panther, and the Santos Evolution pilot echoes the screws of the Santos watch. Bloomingdale's stocks all of these, which makes it easy to compare shapes side by side.

I sorted them by shape. The rimless styles, like the Signature C in gold with brown gradient lenses and the rectangular rimless pair, are the most discreet. On a face they almost disappear and leave only the colour of the lens. The C Décor rectangle and the geometric pair in gold and brown have a bit more structure. The cat eye and the Panthère cat eye are the dramatic ones, and the Santos pilot is the classic aviator of the group.

A pairing tip: gold frames look best with gold jewellery, so if most of what you wear is silver, choose a pair with a cooler grey lens to bridge the two. What I would skip is a rimless frame if you are hard on sunglasses. They are elegant, but the lenses sit exposed and scratch more easily than a full frame, so keep them in their case when they are not on your face.

The last grid is pre-owned, from Bloomingdale's. Buying Cartier this way makes sense for designs the house still makes, because a small Love bracelet from a few years ago looks much like the one in the boutique today. I picked a small Love bracelet and a small Juste un Clou bracelet in yellow gold, a Love interlocking necklace in white gold, two Trinity pendants, one with a ruby, a Trinity bracelet on cord, a medium Trinity cushion ring and a medium Clash ring.

Pre-owned listings are also a chance to try a bolder version of something you already like. The Trinity cushion ring softens the round bands into squares, and the medium Clash ring is a bigger, more sculptural take on the studs in the second grid.

A practical tip: read each listing's condition notes and check the size before anything else, since rings and bracelets come in specific sizes and are not always simple to resize. What I would skip is a pre-owned Cartier piece without clear photos of the hallmarks and the inside of the band. If you can see them, you can judge the piece. If you cannot, wait for another listing, because the right one tends to turn up again.

If I could only choose one piece of Cartier, it would be a Trinity ring. It is the oldest jewellery design in this edit, it sits happily next to gold and silver alike, and it does not ask you to change how you dress. After that, a Tank Must on leather, and only then a Love or Juste un Clou bracelet once I know how I like to stack. If you are buying a gift, I would lean toward earrings or a pendant from the first two grids, since they do not depend on knowing a ring or wrist size.

Care is mostly common sense. Take rings off before hand cream, store each piece separately so gold does not scratch gold, check the screws on a Love bracelet now and then, and send watches for a regular service.

What I love about this house is how each design is one clear idea: a screw, a nail, three bands, a rectangle, a square with its screws on show. Louis-François Cartier took over a workshop in 1847, and nearly two centuries later the best of the work still feels like something a craftsman could sketch in a single line.