I doubt this is the final iteration of a Santos chronograph from the house of Cartier,
but it might be the very best one we've ever seen.
They've been at it for almost 175 years. And this might be the very best one. I'll tell you why.
So if you're a fan of Cartier that the Santos was the very first men's modern wristwatch.
It was also the first pilot aviator watch dates back to 1904. Cartier designed it for his friend,
Alberto Santos Dumont, and who was a brilliant Brazilian aviator who was wildly famous in Paris
at the time, he was known for crazy things like flying his aircraft around the Eiffel tower and
back to the the Hills there outlying Paris. So he just did these flamboyant things that
made him extremely famous and he was followed. And once Cartier designed a wristwatch for him,
it became something that all the dandies of the time wanted to own a wristwatch like
Santos Dumont. So it's interesting that the watch itself has become iconic of Cartier.
The screws on the watch are reminiscent of the rivets on the Santos Dumont aircraft.
And they have continued to update the watch. The steel and gold version came out in 1978
and really has a real retro kind of eighties vibe to it now. But the Santos 100 chronograph it's,
it's kind of an interesting history. There was a version that came out in 1998 with the chronic
reflex movement, which was a sort of a glorified quartz movement. It was developed with Piaget and
the watch itself. It was probably too small to be a chronograph. It had square sub dials at
the bottom and a date at the top that really just looked too crammed in with all the Roman numerals
and everything that it had going on. And so then in 2004, when they Santos 100 came out
a much bigger watch. It only took them a year to come out in 2005 with the Santos 100 chronograph.
Now it was a much bigger chunkier watch and it easily housed the movement,
which was based on a Valgjioux 7750, of course you've, you've seen that movement
in loads of different watches from different manufacturers. And it was a 42.7 millimeter case,
which for the thickness that it was, it was a really big watch and it wore big because
it was square and the chronograph only came in that one size. So it really sort of alienated
a lot of people because only a certain number of big wristed people can wear it. So in 2018,
when Cartier completely revamped the Santos line, they came out with the, what they call the Santos
de Cartier as if all their naming of the various Santos versions weren't confusing enough. This one
is Santos de Cartier. And we've talked about before that, the way you can easily tell this
watch from the other Santos watches is that the Santos 100 is a lot more flat and a lot thicker.
This one is curved with the rest of the lugs are curved. They kind of have this downward
drape around their vest that make it much more comfortable to wear it's actually a little bit
bigger than the Santos, 100 at 43.3 millimeters, but it just doesn't wear that way when you put
it on it it really sits great on the wrist. Even if you don't have huge wrists like me.
It really wears great and it would fit under any kind of shirt because it's only about
12 and a half millimeters thick. The top to bottom measurement is 51.3. And it's really
probably my favorite Santos that they've ever done. It was a little slow to warm up to it,
but it's really outstanding. So what they've done with this one, they've kind of put into it,
everything you would want in a chronograph in a modern sporty, elegant watch it's water resistant
to 100 meters, which is really respectable for a chronograph, especially the dial and hands.
What they've done is just so much better than any version they've ever done before the dial
has sort of an industrial look to it. The square section in the center has these vertical stripes
not, not stripes, more of a brushed vertical brushing that is very different from the
typical guilloché that you see from Cartier on their mechanical watches.
It gives it a different look. Also on the Santos de Cartier all of the ones that are just a three
hand movement, the hands are not loomed, but the chronograph being a sportier watch,
all of the hands are loomed even the ones in the sub dials so you can definitely see this at night.
The movement itself that is really kind of the perfection again, of, of everything that
they've done before, because it's the 1904 CHMC, and what that stands for.
It's the 19 caliber 1904, which is their completely in-house movement. The CH of course
has chronograph. MC is manufacturer caliber, but it's a column wheel, vertical clutch chronograph.
So you don't have any of that kind of hesitation because it's a vertical clutch. You could run
the chronograph all the time, if you want to see the large second hand going. And it won't cause
any problem with the wear to the movement, but even the layout of it is so interesting.
You can see it's just got one pusher over here on the left side and no chronograph pushers
on the right, which really cleans up the design compared to other large scale chronographs. Well,
the way it operates, you push this once and the chronograph starts. You can see the second hand
started there, sort of like a monopoussoir. You're going to push the same button again, to stop the
chronograph, but unlike a monopoussoir, you could push it again to restart and then stopping it.
And then you push the crown to reset everything. It's a really ingenious complicated system
that gives balance visually by having one pusher on the left and the crown on the right it's really
symmetrical the dial itself. The layout is just genius. The way the sub dials at nine and three
are much larger for the chronograph counters. And then the business at six o'clock,
you've got the date and the running seconds for the, for the, for the time is much smaller.
And it's just a great luck. Definitely not something that looks where it's too small
of a watch for everything that's going on. Like the previous model, it doesn't look crammed in
just everything about it. I feel like it's just perfection now in the steel and gold version,
it has a different look to it, but it's really, it's exactly the same watch.
And you wouldn't necessarily know it holding them next to each other. I feel like
the version that steel and ADLC that's what the, the material of the bezel is made of. It stands
for amorphous diamond like carbon. You don't need to know that, but it is a really hard,
but pretty elastic material that the it's not a plating or anything. It's not a coating that will
wear off or anything like that. So lots of watch companies have integrated it into their designs,
but I feel like the steel and ADLC model just looks visually smaller
because what happens is that sort of tricks the eye and you sort of visually connect the
bracelet of the steel and gold model to the, to the watch. And it makes the overall look bigger.
There's a third version that we just don't happen to have in stock right now.
That's all solid rose gold case on a leather strap. It visually looks a little bit
more in scale like the steel one, but what Cartier has done with these bezels number one is that they
it's a brushed finish on the gold where the previous ones on the Santos 100,
they were high Polish, and they were very flat and really kind of a scratch magnet,
but they do get a patina over time that makes them look very, very nice,
but I just liked this one better than it starts out brushed. It does sort of taper into the area
of the bracelet where the previous one was just squared off. And so it really integrates into
the design really, really nicely. Now Cartier tends to just make things better and better
all the time. And they've got a couple of really innovative things going on with this watch.
One is called quick switch, which we saw first came out in 2017 with the revamp
of the Santos de Cartier. And it is a bar that you can easily press with a thumbnail
and be able to remove the bracelet. And of course, I can't seem to do it right now. There we go. So
the bracelet just comes off that easily and the rubber strap can just click right in.
When you look at SwissWatchExpo listings, you'll see everything that comes with the watch pictured,
whether there's a box warranty cards, extra straps, the deployant buckle, what have you,
and these deployant buckles again, they were invented by Cartier and about 1908,
but they've just gotten better and better over the years. They've got the modern one. Of course,
these are sporty watches. You can hear it gives you a really nice click when you close it.
And it's attached. It has the two triggers here to release it and a much easier adjustment system
to adjust the size than what they did before. But in addition to the the quick switch system
that they use on the watch, so that you can change things out and change out the look,
they also have integrated. What I think is just absolutely genius. It's called smart link.
That kind of reminds me of something that they might call a home security system or the Bluetooth
connection of your car to the satellite. But there's a button on the side of each link that's
completely hidden and very smooth. You don't feel it and you can press the button with a fingernail
and it makes the pin pop out and you can actually pull the pin out with your fingers. And once
you've done that, it allows you to remove the link completely just by hand, no tools involved and no
trip to a jeweler. Naturally SwissWatchExpo, we're an online e-commerce business for the most part.
Most of our watches are sold over the internet. And people generally have to go to a jeweler to
get their watches size, but not with this one completely just done by hand. It's such
a great feature for you to be able to size your watch yourself. Plus not a lot of watches really
recognize the fact that a lot of times watches field bigger in the winter and smaller in the
summer, based on the way the wrist changes sizes. And this way you can really just pop in and out
a link seasonally. And it's no issue, no drama, no trip to the jeweler involved.
So I think that when you add up each of those features, the fact that what the watch
brings to the table that they've really perfected the Santos chronograph.
I can't think of anything that they could do to it, to make it
better or improved. I think they've really kind of hit the, the peak of the top here. And you can
tell us in the comments, what you think if there's anything that you'd want to change about it,
or what your favorite feature of the watches that click the bell like and subscribe,
give us a call at SwissWatchExpo, see which ones we've got in stock right now.
And we'll be happy to ship one out to you. You'll have it on your wrist before it.