The Cartier Santos is an icon of modern luxury. Its history is as rich and complex as the watch itself.
Introducing The Cartier Santos 100 Automatic
The story goes that in 1904, Brazilian aviator Alberto Santos-Dumont complained to friend Louis Cartier about the unreliability and impracticality of using a pocket watch while flying. Cartier designed a flat wristwatch with a square bezel, which he gave to Santos-Dumont. The watch caught on with other customers, and thus, the first mass-produced men’s wristwatch was born. While there is debate about who was first to take flight — Santos-Dumont or the Wright brothers — there is no debate about who was first to wear a men’s wristwatch: Alberto Santos-Dumont. What also can’t be debated is that Santos-Dumont became the first person to be filmed in an airplane flight in November 1906 when he took flight for 21.5 seconds—with his Cartier watch on his wrist!
For nearly 30 years, the Cartier Santos has been one of the most popular watches in the world. It's a staple in luxury watch collections and it's been seen on the wrists of everyone from rock stars to presidents.
The Cartier Santos 100, the most recent iteration of the Cartier Santos watch, is deceptively small. Despite sitting large on the wrist, the case measures just 38mm wide and 10.34mm thick. This makes the Cartier Santos 100 incredibly versatile.
The Cartier Santos 100 is an evolution of its predecessor, but with some notable differences. The case has been redesigned and now features a thinner profile that makes it more comfortable to wear during everyday activities. The thin bezel around the dial gives this watch an air of elegance that comes from wearing something that looks much more expensive than it actually is.
The Cartier Santos 100 features a stainless steel case and bracelet, both of which are highly polished for a mirror-like finish that catches light perfectly at all angles. This makes for an extremely elegant look that stands out from other watches in its price range and above.
The dial also has a few unique features that set it apart from other watches in its class:
The Santos 100 Demonstrates Cartier's Commitment to Minimalist Design
The Santos 100 collection is a testament to the adage that less is more. Cartier was able to take a classic design and reinvent it for the modern age, without any of the unnecessary elements that come along with over-the-top luxury watches. For some, this might be a drawback. However, after examining and comparing the Santos 100 to older versions of the watch, we can safely say that this design is an example of Cartier's excellence at taking something simple and making it beautiful. Where other watchmakers have made the mistake of trying to complicate this already-simple design by throwing in extra dials or adding superfluous bezel settings, Cartier has taken the opposite tact. The end result is a truly minimalist watch with just enough details to give it class and character.
The Craftsmanship of Cartier Santos 100 Watches
The Santos 100 collection represents a time when Cartier was at its peak as an international luxury watch brand. The company had grown comfortable with its position as one of the leading purveyors of fine jewellery in Europe—both on land and at sea—and they decided to take some risks with their designs in order to keep things fresh for their customers. This led them down many different paths: from making smaller sized versions of their popular models (like this one),
The Santos 100 is instantly recognizable as a Cartier watch because of its signature hexagonal crown. This crown has been around since 1901! It's featured prominently on both sides of the watch case, giving it an elegant look that's perfect for both men's and women's wrists—and also making it easy to adjust if needed while wearing gloves or mittens in cold weather conditions where traditional bracelet clasps would be difficult or impossible to use due.
What makes this collection so special? We think it's because you can tell at first glance what kind of watch you're looking at—and we all know how important it is to know exactly what time it is when you're wearing a timepiece like this!