Design story time.

In 1904, a Brazilian-born aviation pioneer, Alberto Santos-Dumont, who lived in Paris at the time, had a problem. He needed a watch to time his flights while keeping both hands on a steering wheel (or whatever you call it on an airplane). The problem was that all the watches men had at that time were pocket watches. Pilots wearing bulky gloves and seated in cramped cockpits couldn’t easily fish out a pocket watch. They needed a way to tell time by just glancing at their wrist.

Santos-Dumont was part of Parisian high society, where he met jeweler Louis Cartier. They became friends, bonding over their fascination with modern technology. Santos-Dumont explained his difficulty using a pocket watch while piloting. He asked Cartier if he could design something that could solve that issue. In response, Cartier created a square-dial wristwatch with a leather strap so it could be secured on the wrist. It was arguably the first men’s wristwatch made specifically to be worn on the wrist.

That did not “invent” the wristwatch as a concept, well, it kind of did, but for dudes. Wrist-worn watches existed through the 1800s, but mostly as jewelry for women, including documented pieces by Patek Philippe in 1868 and even earlier commissions in the early 19th century. But when it comes to “utility,” a watch was something to be held in a pocket and taken out when you wanted to know the time.

Initially a personal commission, the watch Cartier designed for Santos-Dumont became commercially known as the “Santos” when Cartier introduced it to the public in 1911. That model is still being produced to this day and is called the Cartier Santos. Costs a ton though, and not my style at all. But the story behind it is quite interesting.