A guillotine-style cigar cutter. The cutter includes a body with a central aperture and a pair of blades disposed on opposite sides of the aperture and configured to move translationally across the aperture to cut an end of a cigar in preparation for smoking. A gear train is provided that includes a ring gear disposed to circumscribe the aperture and to engage pairs of spur gears disposed at diametrically opposite positions. Edges of the blades engage the spur gears in a rack-and-pinion style configuration. The gear train thus provides synchronous and symmetrical movements of the blades relative to one another.