Only 0.2mm thicker than the quartz edition, Santos-Dumont XL with ultra-thin 430MC mechanical calibre is the truest celebration of the arguably the world's first luxury sports watch which introduced exposed screws on bezel over 110 years ago
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The.new mechanical Cartier Santos-Dumont XL in the foreground is only a smidge larger than its quartz predecessor in the background. Watches paired with Must de Cartier portfolio, burgundy calfskin, golden finish – $1,620 and Santos-Dumont ballpoint pen, black composite, metal, pink golden-finish – $1,000
Consumers (and sometimes, even watch journalists) have short memories. Most believe designers Gerald Genta and Jorg Hysek ushered a new era for luxury watch design: the masculine sports watch. Yet in 1904, Brazilian aviation pioneer Alberto Santos-Dumont was already wearing something the modern watch connoisseur would find oddly recognisable today – the prototype Cartier Santos-Dumont featured contoured case that wasn’t exactly a square nor a circle.
 
By the time commercial model was launched in 1911, Louis Cartier’s creation – the world’s first aviation watch exhibited a bezel with external screws that would have surprised and intrigued gentlemen of the period – dress watches (they were all dress watches in those days) would never have had industria...