This is a beautiful watch and is indeed quite expensive for a quartz movement; however, this is par for the course for some ladies Cartier watches. As another poster mentioned, one is really buying a jewelry piece rather than a watch with significant or complex technical movements here. In fact, there are other Cartier ladies watches from other lines that are even more expensive than the Panthere but are also of a quartz movement (see the various ladies Tanks, for example). One isn't generally buying a Cartier at this price for the movement, otherwise, there are many other luxury brand watches with better movements at this price point to look for.
It depends on what you're really looking for when you're looking to buy one dream watch - is the movement a priority for you or are you willing to overlook the fact that it's a quartz movement and prefer the aesthetic look of it instead? The Panthere is an iconic watch for Cartier, hence it being reintroduced for sale, so I don't feel that it matters that it's "just a quartz" watch. It will retain much of its value due to it being a Panthere but what matters is whether this is the one watch you could see yourself wearing over and over through the years and thus feel confident in spending the $26K for it.
