Cartier Santos Dumont

This piece is part of our First Look collection—your early access window into upcoming arrivals before they officially launch on the site. If you’d like more details or wish to reserve this watch ahead of the public release, simply click the Inquire for Priority Access button at the top of the page, complete the short form, and a member of our team will reach out shortly. The Tank isn’t the only prominent wrist watch from luxury powerhouse Cartier. Predating the Tank Louis by nearly two decades, the original Santos model was designed in 1904 and went into serialized production in 1911, seeing countless iterations over the past century — including a brilliant revival in recent years. Available in quartz, hand-wound and automatic varieties in different metals and configurations, it’s an important historical model, a stunning design object and without question one of the maison’s finest creations. This contemporary XL example features a 33.9mm x 46.6mm Platinum case with a sapphire crystal, red cabochon crown and a gorgeous copper inspired radially brushed dial featuring applique Roman indices and a rhodium finished stainless steel 'sword' handset for a properly Art Deco vibe. Outbound is a beautiful printed railroad minute track. This piece is a limited edition of 200 examples made in this execution. It's a beautiful tribute to the Santos design executed in noble platinum for the modern collector looking for a rare special edition. Powered by a manual-winding Calibre 430 MC movement, this piece comes fitted to its original alligator leather strap with a signed Ardillon pin buckle. Tank who?