Cartier Santos-Dumont: A New Gold Bracelet Meets Timeless Elegance
Cartier has designed a new strap for its “Santos-Dumont” that luxuriously highlights the watch’s dress watch character. Another highlight is the model with a gemstone dial.
“The new Santos-Dumont faithfully carries the original design and the supple, elegant bracelet into the modern era, exuding contemporary elegance,” explains Pierre Rainero, Director of Image, Style, and Heritage at Cartier.
A bracelet as a piece of jewelry
Inspired by the first supple metal bracelets that Cartier custom-made in the 1920s, the new yellow gold bracelet also nestles gently against the wrist. It consists of links just 1.15 millimeters thick, forming a braid of 15 strands. The 394 chain links are crafted at the Cartier manufactory and assembled by hand there.
The History of the Cartier Santos-Dumont
The “Santos-Dumont” is considered one of the first wristwatches designed specifically for men and was created in 1904 at the request of Brazilian aviation pioneer Alberto Santos-Dumont. He complained to his friend Louis Cartier that a pocket watch was difficult to read while flying. Cartier then developed a watch that could be worn on the wrist. Although it was created as early as 1904, it did not become known to a wider public until two years later, when Alberto Santos-Dumont was filmed flying an airplane—with his Cartier on his wrist.
Since then, there have been numerous model variations. With the 2019 reissue, Cartier sought to bring the watch back closer to its historical roots and clearly distinguish it from the sportier “Santos de Cartier.”
Iconic design for over 120 years
As a result, today’s “Santos-Dumont” models are closely modeled after the historic original and incorporate many of its design elements. These include the square case with rounded corners, the visible screws on the bezel, Roman numerals, blued sword-shaped hands, the railway-style minute track, the distinctive sapphire cabochon crown, and the overall slim profile.
Three new models with precious-metal bracelets
These distinctive features also define the three new versions of the “Santos-Dumont” with a delicate metal bracelet: a version in 18-karat yellow gold with a silver-colored sunburst dial (MSRP: 37,000 euros), a platinum model with a silver-toned sunburst dial and a ruby cabochon on the crown (MSRP: 49,000 euros), and the particularly eye-catching yellow gold version with a gemstone dial made of gold-plated obsidian (MSRP: 38,900 euros).
This volcanic stone, which originates from Mexico, owes its shimmering reflections to tiny air pockets that make each dial one-of-a-kind.
Manual-Winding Caliber 430 MC
All models feature the hand-wound Caliber 430 MC, with a power reserve of 38 hours and hour and minute functions, housed in a case measuring 43.5 × 31.4 × 7.3 millimeters.
