The picture shows a Cartier Santos-Dumont, the first men’s watch ever built. Relaunched by the legendary jeweler in 2020, this iconic timepiece dates back to the dawn of aviation.
It is named after flight pioneer Alberto Santos-Dumont who pulled off an unprecedented feat: being the first to fly from Parc Saint Cloud to the Eiffel Tower and back. A reward of 100,000 francs was at stake, offered by French businessman Henri Deutsch de la Meurthe. To claim the Deutsch Prize, an aviator would have to complete the course in 30 minutes or less.
Santos-Dumont covered the first leg of the circuit in just 9 minutes. However, an unexpected engine failure slowed him down after he rounded the tower, and almost cost him his life. He made it with 30 seconds to spare. Yet securing the airship’s mooring line took another minute and the adjudicating committee initially denied him the prize.
The crowds and the press in attendance fiercely protested. Henri Deutsch himself, who had witnessed Santos-Dumont fail a few times, was excited to see him finally succeed. A compromise was eventually reached in the aviator’s favor.
At a social function later that year, Santos-Dumont befriended Louis Cartier, the legendary watchmaker. Reminiscing over the problems faced during his legendary flight, and asked whether he was aware that he was running out of time, the airman explained that letting go of the controls to pull out his pocket watch was the last thought on his mind. If only he had another arm! Louis promised Alberto he’d never have to contend with that problem again. Not long after that, he gifted Santos-Dumont a timepiece he could wear on his wrist.
The rest is history. Featuring a robust case and a highly legible dial design, the watch was built to order for a busy aviator. The visible screws that pin down the square glass were meant as a reference to the legs of the new Eiffel Tower, and the tilted Roman numerals suggested Paris’ radial layout of streets. More than a century later, the Santos still is Cartier’s bestseller.
I now wear a Santos-Dumont proudly that my beloved wife, Mena, gifted me for my birthday. She meant it as a reminder that there is always a simpler, more elegant way to solve a problem. I cherish it as such.
She also knows of my admiration for Santos-Dumont, the most extraordinary Brazilian who ever lived. He went on to fly a heavier-than-air craft in 1906. Widely credited in Europe and Brazil as the true airplane inventor, he was also a visionary whose writings anticipated the creation of airports.
He believed planes would grow to be large machines, capable of transporting hundreds of people and cargo. He was also aware that airplanes would eventually become war contraptions. Perhaps for that reason, his life ended tragically in suicide in 1932.
He was only 59. Coincidentally, that is exactly how old I turned this year.
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