Cartier Santos Dumont 'Limited Edition'

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 example features a 31.5mm x 43.5mm rose gold, cream lacquered case with a sapphire crystal, sapphire cabochon crown and a gloss dial featuring a subtle, square patterning, applied Roman indices and a polished 'sword' handset for a properly Art Deco vibe. Powered by a manual-winding Calibre 430 MC movement, this piece comes fitted to its original signed alligator leather strap with a signed Ardillon pin buckle. In excellent condition and accompanied by its box and warranty card, this piece was released in a limited edition of just 250 pieces - cementing its place as one of Cartier's most popular releases in recent years, which is really saying something! Tank who?