Cartier Santos Dumont Large

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 stainless steel case with a pink gold bezel, a sapphire crystal, a sapphire cabochon crown, and a gorgeous silver dial featuring a subtle, sunburst pattern, printed 'Roman' indices, and a blued steel 'sword' handset for a properly Art Deco vibe. Powered by a handy quartz movement, this piece comes fitted to its original black alligator leather strap with a signed stainless steel pin buckle, and also ships with its inner and outer boxes, booklets, and warranty card dated 2021.  Wear it to a gala, wear it to the office — just be careful if, like Santos-Dumont himself, you wear it while piloting an airship around Paris!