“I've been calling the Cartier Santos the ‘It boy watch’ for the past two years, simply because so many guys in my social circle have recently gotten one,” Dimepiece’s Brynn Wallner tells me across the Atlantic as we chew the fat over Cartier’s latest novelties being unveiled during a cheeky pre-Watches and Wonders preview. “It's certainly a unisex watch but it makes sense why men would specifically gravitate toward the Santos because it was the first ever wristwatch created. Even in its more fluid and proportionate vintage iterations, it's a decidedly more traditionally masculine watch than some of the other Cartier offerings, i.e. the bracelet-like Panthère or even the Tank, which can feel dainty in spite of its name,” adds Wallner.
“The Santos has that masculine feel immediately,” Pierre Rainero, Cartier’s style and heritage director, tells me. “If we go to the first period of its creation, it's one of the few models that was in majority, sold to men, whereas, say, the Tank at the beginning was equally sent to men and women. There was not an idea of constraining men to wear specific models or women to wear other specific models, so we can only guess that that type of shape conveyed a more masculine flair or something like that. Probably, it's linked to the very open case or dial, and the square shape.”
When it comes to the Cartier Santos, we’re talking visible hardware, a sturdy steel or precious metal bracelet and the squarest of chunky square dials. It’s a watch the likes of Micheal Ward, Tom Hiddleston, Tom Cruise and Jake Gyllenhaal have been known to wear, because it matches their built physiques while still providing something sexy that draws the right kind of attention to their wrists. One look at the latest 2024 references will have the IT boys giddy with excitement..
A brand new Santos de Cartier Dual Time is the stand out talking point – an all steel, grey-dialled affair that tells the time twice at the same time, like never before. A quick history refresher reminds you that the Santos was named after a handsome fella called Alberto Santos-Dumont. Described as ‘a free-spirited pioneer’, in 1904 he was the first person to fly a plane of sorts while wearing a pilot’s watch.
“I like the idea that the model is desirable just for the sake of its design and its quality. And that the history just comes on top,” says Rainero about this new Dual Time. It is a sleeker way of being on two time zones than your average GMT, with the counter at 6 o’clock elegantly showing a second, adjustable time depending on where you’re heading, or simply where you wish to keep track of the time. Shout out to the seven-sided chunky steel crown, which couldn’t be more masculine if it tried.
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“I'm reluctant to gender watches based on societal norms but these latest references feel intentionally skewed toward the dude side of the spectrum,” adds Wallner. “They counter the ultra-femme, whimsical Baignoire bangle that stole our hearts last year, which got men acquiring older Baignoire models in droves.”
Rainero doesn’t disagree, though he distinctly remembers the brand making small Santos models back in the mid '80s when he first started out at Cartier. “They were sold to men like a statement of strong masculinity,” he says, as if to pre-empt today’s current trend of some men preferring to wear tiny watches, “but this was probably only possible because it was a Santos model.”
Cartier is unveiling a trio of killer new Santos de Cartier pieces, one yellow gold/steel two-tone number with a slightly lighter grey dial (‘satin-finished anthracite grey sunray-brushed’ to be more specific) and two brown dialled pieces too – one large (39.8mm x 47.5mm) with a date window at 6 o’clock, the other a smaller (35.1mm x 41.9mm) no fuss one for the those who prefer the slighter size. Design-wise, if this means confessing to thinking about the Roman Empire, so be it – because the way the Roman numerals hug the inside of any Santos’ case is unique.
There’s also a quartet of muted but nonetheless colourful Santos-Dumonts in the mix too, which will be available in June. At first glance, one of them might look like a standard Santos-Dumont – brownish red (carnelian) dial, platinum case, ruby cabochon on the crown. But look closer and you’ll see the dial has been flipped so two o’clock is 10 o’clock, four o’clock is eight o’clock and vice versa. It’s called the Rewind, the manual winding movement works in reverse to what it normally does, and it is limited to 200 pieces. The other three aren't back to front, though. A green dialled piece has a platinum case with a lacquered bezel that matches the dial, then there’s a grey dial with yellow gold case and a taupe grey lacquer bezel as well as a blue dial rose gold combo.
“The colours, while vibrant, are not the pastel hues we've seen so many watch brands gravitate toward,” says Wallner, name-dropping Rolex's OP line and the many pink TAG Heuer watches that correlated with Barbie as examples. Rainero says this was a deliberate decision. “We wanted that type of nuance for the colours, in the name of a certain notion of elegance.”
Rainero adds: “The models with lacquer on the case, the bezel and the dial show how we can go a bit further in proposing a different type of elegance without modifying the basic function of telling the time.”
All in all, 2024 is set to be a great year to be a Cartier Santos fan. “On a regular basis, we present so many novelties but sometimes it hides the others so I'm glad you recognised what we did for Santos [this year],” says Rainero. “It shows the richness of the possibilities for this watch – it can be very functional as long as it is elegant.”
