Santos

Cartier's Santos began as a wristwatch for the Brazilian aviator Alberto Santos-Dumont. Cartier dates Louis Cartier's watch for his friend to 1904, when consulting a pocket watch in flight was an awkward business. A version went on sale to the public in 1911.

Its square case and exposed bezel screws gave it a recognizable outline. That outline survived a much larger change in 1978, when Cartier introduced a steel-and-gold Santos with an automatic movement and a fitted metal bracelet. This is the ancestor of the bracelet watch most people now associate with the name.

The new bracelet did more than replace a leather strap. Screws ran along its links, repeating the screws around the dial. Yellow gold picked out the bezel and smaller details against the steel. The watch could be understood as one piece from clasp to case, rather than a watch head attached to an interchangeable band.

The early straight-sided version is known as the Carrée, French for square. The later Galbée softened the case and gave it a more pronounced curve. Cartier has continued to alter the proportions and construction: the 2018 Santos de Cartier added systems for changing straps and adjusting bracelet links without conventional tools. These are separate generations, not names for the same watch.

Meanwhile, the Santos-Dumont line has kept a slimmer, strap-mounted alternative closer in appearance to the early watches. The family therefore has two useful histories to follow: the small shaped wristwatch made for an aviator, and the steel-and-gold bracelet watch developed more than seventy years later. The Carrée sits at the beginning of the second.