I’ve had my Cartier Santos mid size blue dial for a couple of months now. Enough time to really get under its skin and assess it for fit, function and of course, how it fits in the rest of my collection.
Cartier has spent quality time thinking about the customer and our user experience, not just at telling the time, elegantly, but real value engineered into a watch using exquisite design you’d expect from “the jeweller of kings and the king of jewellers”.
In fact Cartier puts it’s competition to shame showing what can be achieved if the desire to satisfy is there. But does all that make for a great watch? Let’s find out.
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Origin of an Icon
For the handful of enthusiasts that didn’t know, the Cartier Santos dates back to 1904 and was developed by Louis Cartier for his friend and aviator Alberto Santos-Dumont and is heralded as the first modern wristwatch and pilots watch. The Cartier Santos Dumont was available for general sale in 1911 and is still available and faithful to the original with the classic art deco styling.
Source: Revolutionwatch
What we have here is the Cariter Santos De Cartier in mid size. An update on the Santos Dumont released back in 1978, a time of the Royal Oak and Patek Phillipe Nautilus. A watch to keep Cartier out of trouble through the quartz crisis and the first to be available in steel.
Source: Revolutionwatch
One of the first steel and gold watches, the Satos grew true notoriety in solid gold on the wrist of Michael Douglas as Gordon Gekko in the film Wall Street. A real sign of affluence and power, maintaining Cartier’s position as a true luxury brand.
The Cartier Santos Mid Size
Roll forward to 2018 and the launch of the current model in white, we are now joined by both a green dial and this one with the blue dial.
It’s fair to say the Santos is on the list of icons that many enthusiast seek along with the Rolex Submariner, the Omega Speedmaster and the Zenith El Primero. Many collectors will start here as a safe and satisfying way to get into watches and as your knowledge and tastes mature, maybe some of those icons will move on or be added to as I have done.
In fact, thinking back, this is the first watch I’ve bought on sight only without knowledge of the specifications, the water resistance, power reserve and how anti-magnetic it is. It’s fair to say, these were irrelevant once my eye was focused on the design and elegance of this watch and how well it wears.
How does it wear?
The watch measures 35mm wide and 42mm lug to lug. At under 9mm thick, with a well judged curved sapphire crystal and weighing in at 102g this watch sits perfectly on my 6.75″ (170mm) wrist.
35mm sounds small for a modern gents watch until you measure the diagonal at 40mm, so on my 6.75” wrist wears almost perfect. It’s fair to say that some will think the watch too small. For collectors of larger sports watches, this may be a factor, but if you can pull off a Rolex Explorer 36mm, then this will fit in just fine.
And with the short integrated lug design the Santos has a very elegant cohesion to it that some bracelet watches don’t have where the bracelet and watch head appear to have been designed independently. Think Rolex GMT Master 2 on a Jubilee. Not here, Cartier have perfectly micro engineered both parts to perfection.
The case is a mix of brushed and polished adding exquisite design detail that breaks it up and avoids the mono-block design of many modern watches. I really appreciate that. Many reviewers refer to the high polish on the bezel as a scratch magnet. It’s not something I’ve noticed or am concerned about.
It’s all about the details
The dial is a deep sun ray blue with a light to dark gradient from the centre. I like the contrast of the polished roman numerals and hands against the blue dial and having a little luminova in the hands gives it that slight sports watch edge over the white dial with it’s blued hands.
I did try the green dial, but preferred the blue even though the green allegedly holds a little more value. At this price, that should never be a consideration. Buy what you like, wear and enjoy.
The Santos De Cartier benefits from 100m of water resistance despite having no screw down crown, so this is swimmable, although I’d avoid swimming with the leather strap.
I do like the slightly industrial design aspect of the watch, following the art deco cues from the original Santos Dumont. The case style and the randomly positioned screw heads hark back to a time of elegant engineering where if it looked good, it probably was. I also love the industrial look of the case back and how the engravings are made, very purposeful and not overly designed.
Where this watch differs from the Dumont is the addition of crown guards with a larger crown and what Cartier refer to as a Spinel, a synthetic and faceted crystal that adds a flash of extravagance and matches the blue of the dial perfectly.
Quick strap change
This is an integrated bracelet watch with a difference. The bracelet itself tapers nicely from 18 to 16mm with short single links that conform well to the wrist. There’s a twin trigger deployant clasp to add to the sports watch credentials and what Cartier refer to as Smart Link adjustment. This allows the owner to quickly add or remove links without the need to visit to jewellers or damage the watch with tools. There is a small tool supplied in the box to push the almost invisible button on the back of each removable link, but I would avoid using this metal device, favouring a wooden cocktail stick to prevent scratching. This is a similar system to one IWC use and just goes to show how much margin is in a typical Swiss Watch when this type of function can be added in that has little to no use once fitted correctly. I’m all for it.
Another nice piece of hidden engineering is the addition of the Quick Switch system for swapping between bracelet and strap. This is a proprietry system unlike the one IWC uses and retains a standard spring bar, this one ties you into a Cartier strap, but does maintain the integrated aspect which I like.
With this blue dial watch a blue alligator strap and deployant clasp are included and I have to say I think this watch look amazing on both steel and leather. Not sure about the green strap on the green dial, but each to their own.
In house calibre
Inside this watch uses Cartier caliber 1847MC. This is an in-house calibre fitted to many other Cartier models and is tiny at under 26mm in diameter. It has a power reserve of 42 hours, 23 jewels and beats at 28,800 vibrations per hour. Cartier doesn’t advertise these movements as chronometers or come with any COSC certification, but that doesn’t mean that Cartier haven’t regulated each watch accordingly. My example has run +0.5s per day when worn every day for 2 weeks. I’d call that a win.
Go large
If you want a date, go for the large size. This one measures up another 5mm wide at 40mm, but for me sits too large on the wrist. There’s also a chronograph version that I’m no fan of, but if you like it, go for it.
Final thoughts
So what do I love about this watch? I love the elegant, art deco design. It’s a cross over watch, not too sporty and not too dressy. A watch for the gentleman you might say. This watch doesn’t look like any of my other watches, so fits into the collection really well. It may be dainty with small exceptionally engineered micro parts, but everything about the watch feels robust, tough even as you’d expect from a swimmable sports watch. Despite my love of a date on a watch, I like the fact you can just pick this one up, wind it and just wear it. It may be an early take on a sports watch with many sports watch features, but that square dial makes telling the time accurately a challenge. And this takes the pressure off syncing the time precisely. But that’s not what this watch is about. It’s all about the style. Hell, you may even choose not to set the time at all.
Some will call this watch out for being too small. To do so misses the point of the design and style of a traditional gents watch where understated class will always trump extravagance and show of larger sports watches. It’s also good to have balance of size and style in any collection.
So is this a keeper? I think it’s fair to say this watch has many of the charms my other watches lack, where large round sports watches start to blur into ‘me-too’ designs. The Santos stands apart and plays deep to its 120 year old heritage. This is a watch that’s happy in its skin, knows what it is and Cartier knows this and hasn’t messed with the formula. This is an aspirational, luxury brand, “the jeweller of kings and the king of jewellers” that hasn’t gone the way of Gucci.
I’ll certainly be holding on to this one for some time to come.
