In the myriad of existing Cartier watch designs, the Santos line proposes a very bold look, and yet also an immense variety of options to choose from. From the extremely rare museum pieces dating back to the start of the 20th century, to the latest batch of novelties, there is a world of watches to be owned just from that model. I won’t delve into the history of the Cartier Santos Dumont as a simple google search will help you find more than enough interesting articles about the fabulous history of this watch. What is interesting though is that throughout its history, the general design of the Cartier Santos has evolved continuously into numerous variations. Your santos can be in steel, gold, platinum or two tone. It can house a quartz, manual or automatically wound movement. It comes with a full metal bracelet, or a leather strap with a deployant clasp or a simple pin buckle… the choice is yours, depending on your personal taste. On a more personal note, I would really like a tank cintrée most of all.

The Cartier Santos Dumont in reality is my second favorite model from La Maison. So, it happened that after trying on a mesmerizing tank cintrée and quickly realizing I would have to wait a few years before being able to afford one, I started to look at the vintage santos watches with growing interest as an alternative. I happened to luckily stumble on one which was exactly what I was looking for, and was for sale only a few kilometers from where I live! That in itself is quite astounding considering I live in a remote place in the French countryside, hundreds of kilometers from the closest luxury watch AD. This particular model is from the 80s. It has a beautiful yellow gold case with differently finished facets and edges. It is powered by a manually wound ETA movement. The dial is very classic for Cartier: white with black Roman numerals and railway track. There is the famous secret signature at seven. The dial and caseback are signed Swiss, and there exists a Paris signed variant. But what really does it for me is the oversized angular crown. I find it brings a modern touch to the Santos, which is often found with smaller and more intricately designed crowns. This also helps for winding the movement as the watch in itself is rather small and delicate for modern standards. The dark blue angular cabochon is absolutely beautiful and perfectly pairs with the blued steel hands.

So overall there are a hell of a lot of details on this Cartier Santos Dumont. I often find myself staring blankly at it in admiration of the way the light bounces off the blued hands, or how it reflects on the pure white dial, or catches the thick lacquered printing of the roman numerals, and the way it bends around the shapes of the case… It is quite hypnotizing. There is some hype around Cartier watches these days, and I must admit this piece lives up to it. I would never have thought it would bring me so much admiration and pleasure. The watch is a strap queen and it is really fun to try different combos, either sporty or more classic. At 24 mm wide, which was the men’s size for the model at the time (the woman’s size was around 21mm wide), it flies under the radar and is a monster of elegance. You do need some balls to rock this watch though, especially if you are used to 42mm steel dive watches and oversized chronographs with outrageous pushers. There is a funny and bizarre detail with my Cartier Santos. The caseback is actually printed upside down. I don’t even know how that is possible. Maybe a mistake in a limited run of production that went unnoticed during quality control? I wonder if there are other models with this special feature. It is already a very scarce watch to find, and even more with the oversized crown. So finding another one with upside down caseback would be an awesome find. Do contact me if you have one 🙂