Origins
The Santos is a square-cased wristwatch with visible screws on the bezel, associated with the Brazilian aviation pioneer Alberto Santos-Dumont and dating from the early years of the twentieth century. It holds a significant place in horological history as one of the earliest, and most influential, purpose-designed wristwatches.
In the early twentieth century, wristwatches were rare and associated primarily with women; men's timekeeping was almost entirely served by the pocket watch. Alberto Santos-Dumont was one of the most watched and photographed individuals in Paris, making pioneering flights in balloons and early heavier-than-air machines. He and Louis Cartier moved in the same Paris world. One account, which has circulated since the early years of the firm, places a key conversation between them at a supper at Maxim's: Santos-Dumont complained that consulting a pocket watch while piloting his aircraft required both hands and was dangerous. Louis Cartier designed a wristwatch to solve the problem.
Case and Dial
The Santos case is square with rounded corners. Eight visible screws on the bezel (two per side) hold the bezel to the case band. The dial is white or cream with black Roman numerals and a railway-track minute chapter. Hands are blued steel swords. The winding crown carries a blue sapphire cabochon. Strap lugs are integrated into the case.
Louis Cartier worked with Edmond Jaeger on the movement. Later examples produced for the American market were distributed through the European Watch & Clock Company.
Public Release and Influence
When Louis released the design to a wider market in 1911, he named it the Santos, after a man whose every appearance in Paris attracted attention, at a time when the wristwatch was still considered a feminine accessory. The watch's combination of legibility, functionality, and strong visual identity made it widely copied, and its influence on twentieth-century watch design was considerable. The visible screw motif in particular was adopted by many other manufacturers in the decades that followed.
Vintage Santos Watches
Vintage Santos watches span a considerable range: early examples are distinguished by their proportions, dial layouts, movement types, and the signatures they carry. Pieces sold through the American market were often handled by the European Watch & Clock Company, whose signature appears on the movement rather than the dial.
Among the earliest surviving examples is an 18-karat white gold Santos Dumont wristwatch from around 1910, with a 25mm square case, four screws on the case band, a silvered dial with painted Roman numerals and blued steel Breguet hands, and an 18-karat pink gold déployante buckle. Pieces of this vintage, with original dials and period-correct movements (in this case a manual-wind calibre 9917, 18 jewels), are among the most sought-after early wristwatches at auction.
Sources
- Francesca Cartier Brickell, The Cartiers (Ballantine Books, 2019), ch. 2 (“Louis, 1898–1919”) and ch. 4 (“Jacques, 1906–1919”)
- Hans Nadelhoffer, Cartier: Jewelers Extraordinary (Thames and Hudson, 1984; revised 2007), p. 305.
