The Cartier Santos full guide with models and prices

The Cartier Santos is the first-ever men’s wristwatch, created by Louis Cartier for the illustrious aviator Alberto Santos-Dumont, who gave his name to a watchmaking icon. Santos Dumont pioneered modern civil aviation, and his endeavors were extraordinary, considering how risky testing was back then.

At the time, watches were not luxury accessories but tools instead, and Alberto Santos-Dumont was looking for an instrument allowing him to tell the time without leaving one hand from piloting, to read his pocket watch while flying. While women are credited to have worn the first-ever wristwatch in history, the Cartier Santos, with its square case and visible screws on the bezel, paved the way for a specific watch category and changed watchmaking forever.

1904: the Cartier Santos was launched

At the beginning of the twentieth century, Louis Cartier supported a friend of the brand Alberto Santos-Dumont during the flight experimentation phase by providing him with a time-only flat and squared wristwatch paired with a leather strap on a pin buckle. What was conceived as an aviation watch soon became a milestone in watchmaking and one of the most coveted and admired wristwatches ever.

In 1911, the Santos hit the stores and soon became popular. The rivets on the bezel, a nod to an aircraft’s fuselage, are the distinctive traits of this somewhat odd-looking watch.

1978: The Santos reappears in a luxury sports version

During the initial life cycle, the watch reappeared in a steel and gold variant in 1978, equipped with a two-tone bracelet whose design has become equally legendary. We are amidst the sports-luxury watch in steel trend, whose main characters were the Royal Oak and the Nautilus.

The Cartier Santos appears in a more contemporary livery, housing for the first time a bracelet soon to become as legendary. About ten years later, Cartier introduced the Santos de Cartier Galbée, featuring softer case sides, much-rounded lugs, and a quartz movement.

2004: The Santos 100 debuts

Marking one hundred years since its debut, the new Cartier Santos 100 appears, showcasing squared lines and a box-like case side. The Santos 100 comes, first and foremost, as a bold three-hander, and during its life cycle, it adopts an in-house movement, too.

The time only is followed by an even bolder chronograph variant powered by a self-winding Valjoux-based calibre. Both iterations are available in steel, gold, steel and gold paired with leather straps, whose end parts close into a butterfly clasp reproducing the Double-C Cartier logo. A Skeleton model and several diamond-decorated models also add to the classic collection.

2018: here comes the next-gen Cartier Santos

During SIHH 2018, Cartier brought many new models, with a new Cartier Santos collection replacing the Cartier Santos 100, launched in 2004. A very long cycle thus ends, and a new chapter begins.

Renewing an icon always requires effort and risk-taking. Still, Cartier had fully re-engineered the lineup by introducing many relevant innovations, making it more appealing and fresh than ever before, especially to those who didn’t like or couldn’t wear a Cartier Santos 100 XL.

The available options

There are two available options for the Cartier Santos 2018, a “Medium” size, mainly geared to her or a unisex audience, and a “Large” model, with the date window at six. The case was fully redesigned and comes in either 35,1 by 41,9 by 8,83 mm (Medium) or 39,8 by 47,5 by 9,08 mm (Large), respectively (width, lug-to-lug distance, thickness).

Among the most appreciated updates is the reduced thickness, resulting in a more wearable timepiece than the Santos XL, placing itself more as a classic sports watch. A 100-meter water resistance is standard and comes paired with enhanced magnetic performance.

The new bezel’s design

The most prominent new design trait is the re-styled bezel. Please forget the screwed-in squared ring; it now extends towards the bracelet, thus fostering an integrated bracelet-like style. Most purists won’t appreciate and still prefer the old design (us included). We instead approve the case’s reduced thickness.

However, there is no Cartier Santos without screws, and this trait keeps identifying every iteration of the watch, the new model included.

The dial comes in several options, all featuring the signature Roman numerals and sword-shaped hands in light-blued steel, matching the blue cabochon set into the crown. Here is the quintessential Santos dial, with the secret “Cartier” inscription placed at seven, a lovely detail.

The self-winding 1847 MC calibre

The calibre powering the watch is the self-winding 1847 MC movement with a “poor” two days of power reserve, and it is anti-magnetic.

QuickSwitch e SmartLink

The new Santos introduces self-adjustment via QuickSwitch and SmartLink. QuickSwitch is a quick-change mechanism allowing the owner to swap straps via a push-button. By purchasing the watch, you’ll get a replacement leather strap, too. SmartLink is a clever device to add or remove links yourself.

It provides tiny buttons behind each link, allowing the wearer to release the metal bar and quickly release links to size the bracelet to your liking without visiting the brand’s boutique.

The 2018 Cartier Santos comes in several options: steel, steel and 18kt gold, 18kt yellow gold, and 18kt rose gold. The offering also includes the much-loved skeletonized options powered by hand-wound calibres, a feast for your eyes.

The Cartier Santos Skeleton

Among the most attractive mechanically-complicated Cartier Santos watches is the Cartier Santos Skeleton. Skeletonized watches are Cartier’s signature, and to such an extent that the brand offers such a complication across all its core collections.

Initially introduced within the Santos 100 collection, the Santos Skeleton is highly sought-after, and the Maison has, therefore, introduced a new model in 2018. What makes this watch so special is the movement’s design and how it brilliantly copes with Santos’ design language.

In brief, Cartier’s watchmakers adopted the hand-wound calibre 9612 MC, whose skeletonized bridges mimic the Roman numerals on the dial’s side and on the back, too. The whole package creates a stunning timepiece, which sets itself apart from the competition (along with its squared case shape, too).

You can admire the ultra-classic movement’s shape through the front and back glasses, with two barrels winding the watch for up to 72 hours, quite a remarkable feat.

The calibre’s bridges alternate vertically brushed to mirror-polished surfaces with bevelled angles. Measuring 9,08 mm in thickness, the Santos Skeleton is a luxury all-rounder considering its up-to-100-meter waterproofness and fuss-free bracelet’s quick change mechanism to let you customize the watch to your liking or the season.

Cartier currently offers four options: steel, steel and yellow gold, pink gold, and a fourth one sporting an ADLC-treated steel case and a fully-lined dial called “The Noctambule”.

2019: the new Cartier Santos Chronograph

In 2018, Cartier introduced a fully renewed collection. In 2019, as expected, Cartier introduced the chronograph.

A two-button chronograph with a single push-piece chronograph design

We always liked the Santos 100 XL Chronograph from an aesthetic point of view, and its extra-large size, too, less from a technical standpoint. The redesigned new Santos De Cartier Chronograph marks a technical turnaround.

The new Santos de Cartier Chronograph is geared towards watch lovers and was conceived to mimic the button-free three-hand watch’s style. The engineers modified the manufacture calibre 1904–CH MC to mimic a mono-pusher chronograph: the button on the left side of the case starts and stops the Chrono hand, and the crown resets it.

Technically refined, yet aesthetically controversial?

The 2018 Cartier Santos introduced a new design: the re-shaped iconic squared bezel was and still is the prominent unique trait.

However, the chronograph’s dial looks weird: the 12-hour and 30-minute registers are oversized, thus making the Santos de Cartier Chronograph less classy than the model it replaced. However, operating the chronograph is a lovely experience: starts and stops operations are smooth and precise, thanks to a column wheel mechanism with a vertical clutch.

The Cartier Santos-Dumont

Originally introduced exclusively as a quartz watch, the new Cartier Santos–Dumont reproduces the original Cartier Santos’ design and abandons the outgoing’s smooth and no-bezel polished case. Therefore, It has an unmistakable screwed-in rectangular bezel crafted in steel or pink gold and adopts an ultra-slim case profile. The Santos two-collection offering is thus complete: the Cartier Santos de Cartier comes as a three-hander, a chronograph and a skeletonized variant, and so does the Santos–Dumont’s with the exclusion of the chronograph option.

The ultra-flat mechanical models, which are 7,5mm thick, add to the Santos–Dumont quartz and are a call for a more classic audience, watch connoisseurs and lovers of the original Santos–Dumont, yet looking for a somewhat larger model (it measures 46,6mm by 33,9mm) in its hand-wound option compared to the quartz models.

Cartier opted for the hand-wound Cartier 430MC movement: beating at 3Hz and capable of a 38–hour maximum power reserve, it is Cartier’s take on a Piaget ultra-thin calibre. The phased-out Santos–Dumont also adopted the same calibre as other Cartier watches, like the Cartier Drive de Cartier Extra–Flat, introduced at SIHH 2017. It’s a perfect choice for such a timepiece.

From a design perspective, the case offers lovely details: the satin-finished case is flat (and the dial is as large as possible) to make the watch sleeker. The polished bezel, crafted in steel or pink gold (hence no yellow gold, no longer), is not flat but has a conical shape to make it bolder, contrasting the case design whose lugs are curved to make the watch better taper the wrist.

The case back

The case back bears the Alberto Santos–Dumont initials (S-D) while, unlike the quartz version, the leather strap with a pin buckle is integrated into the case.

The Cartier Santos’s price

The Santos ranges from the quartz Santos-Dumont to the Santos de Cartier in rose gold with a skeletonized movement. Therefore, the price list starts at €4,300 and goes as high as €74,500.

The two listed prices refer to the timepieces mentioned above. Which is the Cartier Santos to go for? It depends on your expectations and how you’ll use it.

We think that the mid-size self-winding Santos is the bread and butter of the proposition, but a Santos-Dumont XL with hand-winding movement is an attractive choice if you’re looking for a classy, original-Santos-looking timepiece with a reasonable price tag.

Finally, a second-hand Santos is acceptably priced and helps save on the new one, whose retail price has increased consistently since the new-gen Santos hit the scene in 2018. Regarding the chronograph, what a pity we can’t access a full-steel option (hence without the ADLC-treated bezel pictured above).

(Photo credit: Cartier, Horbiter®)

Editorial team @Horbiter®