Cartier Santos

Vintage Cartier Santos(es) are having a major moment right now. Take a look at Lou Reed in the ‘80s or Jerry Seinfeld in the ‘90s, and you can begin to understand how cool the watch looks no matter what kind of fits you style it with. Oh, you know who else has a vintage Santos? Rihanna. She wears hers to the grocery store. It’s a versatile, everyday watch. This Santos is presented in all steel, which is a minimal and dashing alternative to the more popular two-tone.

THE BASICS 

DATE OF BIRTH: Circa 1980’s

MATERIAL: Stainless steel, blue sapphire set winding crown

SIZE: Small (24mm x 35mm) / small bracelet for smaller wrists 

MOVEMENT: Automatic 

CONDITION: Very good

BOX/PAPERS: No/No

THE NITTY GRITTY

A stainless steel Cartier Santos. Perhaps alongside the Tank, the Santos is the most iconic of all Cartier watch designs. Not only is it very distinctive on the eye, it also carries the title of the first men’s wristwatch ever made. A relationship between the Brazilian  early aviator Santos Dumont and Louis Cartier led to the creation of the watch that bore his name. After complaining to Louis Cartier about how difficult it was to wear a pocketwatch while trying to fly, Cartier came up with a solution for his intrepid Brazilian friend. And so, the Cartier Santos was born. The November 1906 film which shows Santos’s 21.5 seconds of flight also features the first wristwatch hard at work!

The watch is powered by the Cartier automatic movement. It has the classic design with the screw down crystal frame and bracelet set with screw designs. The dial is classic Cartier: Roman numerals with the hidden signature at the one the one of the 10 o’clock, chemin de fer minute track, sword blued steel hands, and blue sapphire set winding crown. Due to the smaller size of this model there is no room for the date window which is found on the larger sizes.  This creates a cleaner, simplified look overall. The watch is presented in good original condition, lightly polished, with strong lines and clean throughout. The dial has a few spider cracks throughout as is quite common with these early dials, but they can only be seen through a magnified loup and are mentioned for transparency. 

A cult classic worn by many icons over the years which is now becoming the must have Cartier again.