Cartier

The Cartier Santos was born of the friendship between two pioneers: Brazilian aeronaut Alberto Santos-Dumont and French visionary jeweler Louis Cartier. The famous tale goes that Santos-Dumont asked Cartier to design a watch that can be worn on the wrist due to the difficulty of checking a pocket watch mid-flight. The subsequent design of a wristwatch that featured a sleek, square case with exposed screws on the bezel not only solved a practical problem faced by many pilots midflight, but also became an instantly recognizable design emblematic of the Santos collection to this day.

Unlike the sportier Santos de Cartier models, the Santos-Dumont corresponds more to a dress watch with its thin and sleek profile that was often crafted in precious metals such as platinum, pink, white, or yellow gold as seen in the present example.

The ultra thin profile is made possible by the famous calibre 21 by Frederic Piguet introduced in 1925. At only 1.75 mm, it was one of the thinnest movements available when it was unveiled, until the introduction of the Audemars Piguet calibre 2003 in 1952.