Cartier Santos Carée

I’ve been calling this the it-boy watch, but it really looks good on everyone. Lou Reed wore the Santos in the ‘80s, Jerry Seinfeld in the ‘90s – but before either of them, it was worn by Santos Dumont, Louis Cartier’s party hopping Brazilian pilot friend. Dumont came to Cartier lamenting the difficulty of checking the time during flight (men were exclusively wearing pocket watches in the early 1900s); and Louis, ever ingenious and charitable, created the Santos, effectively the first-ever wristwatch designed for (and accepted) by men. Truly revolutionary and exciting, the Santos has evolved to undergo several iterations and design tweaks, but our favorites are those belonging to the ‘80s/’90s sweet-spot era. This steel example is at once understated and swaggy, AND it’s automatic! You can be stylish and please the watch nerds in one fell swoop. 

THE BASICS

DATE OF BIRTH: Circa 1980’s

MATERIAL: Stainless Steel 

SIZE: 29MM aka mid-sized 

MOVEMENT: Automatic

CONDITION: Excellent, unpolished

BOX/PAPERS: No/No

THE NITTY GRITTY:

A stainless steel Cartier Santos Carée . 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 pocket watch 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!

This model, which became a more sporty example than the original version, launched  in 1978 hot on the heels of the introduction of the Royal Oak and Nautilus and was Cartier’s attempt to keep up with their rivals in making a sport watch on a bracelet. This watch went on to become one of the most legendary watches of the 1980’s. The wrist of Gordon Gekko would not have sported anything else.

The watch is powered by the Cartier ETA automatic movement with a deeper case back designed to give space for the rotor. It has the classic design with the screw down crystal frame and bracelet set with screw designs. Everything that is loved on Cartier watches is present here: the sword shape blued steel hands, Roman numeral dial with a chemin de fer minute track, featuring the seven o’clock marker holding the hidden Cartier signature, and a blue sapphire set winding crown. The date window on this model is set at the classic three o'clock position, and can be quick-set through the crown. 

The watch is presented in really superb condition, quite possibly unpolished, with strong lines and clean throughout. This is very unusual to find today with these watches. They were, at one point, quite affordable luxury, and as a result were worn very hard. Harder even to find is the all steel example presented here. Not to mention, many of the dials from this period were subject to crazing or cracking of the enamel… This is also not the case here, with the dial being presented in perfect condition in its glossy white finish. A great play on the oldest men’s watch of them all!

All watches are protected against mechanical failure under a 1 year warranty by Foundwell.