Wind it with your morning coffee
By Priya Nair, Singapore ·
Louis Cartier made the original Santos for his friend Alberto Santos-Dumont, the aviator, so that he could read the time without fishing for a pocket watch mid-flight. The Santos-Dumont is the slim, leather-strapped descendant of that idea, and it's the quietest watch Cartier makes.
The large is 31.4 mm wide and 7.5 mm thick, steel with a silver dial and Roman numerals, closed caseback, 30 m, on a 20 mm leather strap. The movement is the hand-wound 430 MC with 38 hours of reserve, which means a short wind every morning. Some people find that ritual romantic. I find it romantic after my first coffee and a chore before it.
At 5,400 to 5,800 dollars it's less than the steel Santos de Cartier and more refined to look at, with the screws on the bezel kept but everything else slimmed down. It vanishes under a shirt cuff, and with a thin gold chain bracelet beside it, it looks like it cost far more.
Don't buy it if you want a do-everything watch. Do buy it if you already have a bracelet watch and want the dress one.