Photos by Jake Witkin
After the actual cushion cases from last year, I wasn’t sure what to expect from Cartier at this year’s Watches and Wonders Geneva. The brand has been on an absolute tear for the last few years, debuting some of the most talked about watches of the show, if not the year. It never seemed to be about one-upping others or themselves, but about just continuing to produce exciting watches. What would it bring this year? I didn’t know, but I would never have guessed that Cartier would reverse the gearing on a movement and make a watch that spins the other way ’round. Yet that’s exactly what we were presented with at this year’s show. The Cartier Santos-Dumont delivers quirk in an elegant package, that brings a bit of If You Know, You Know to the stealth wealth of a platinum Cartier.
On the wrist, the platinum Santos-Dumont Rewind is as exceptional as all its siblings, with a 31.5mm diameter, 43.5mm lug-to-lug, and a 7.3mm thickness. That’s the “Large” case size for the SdC, and while it may be small to some (or most) the dimensions feel bigger in the square as of the watch and I found it perfect on the wrist. It should be noted, too, that the watch has a gentle curve to it that makes it wear better than a flat watch might. That’s all aided by the fitted leather strap, which Cartier did its darnedest to match to the dial. Curiously, the strap has a simple tab for quick release as opposed to the brand’s proprietary push-button mechanism. The ruby cabochon crown also coordinates, and while I love the style of Cartier crowns, if you’ve ever had to use one, you know they can be tricky little buggers. I found I needed to use my fingertips to pull out and it didn’t offer a ton of grip thereafter. This issue is exacerbated when you’re dealing with a manual movement, as is the case here.
Enough about that case — you came to hear about this wacky dial! To answer your question: Yes, the hands rotate in the opposite direction and yes, it’s confusing at first. After not too long on the wrist, you get the hang of it, even if it takes a second longer than usual. In that short time, though, I found the small feeling of annoyance taken over by a larger feeling of being charmed by such a silly, needless complication, if we can call it that. The trickiest bit is actually remembering that the hands do run backward. As a watch nerd, I don’t actually find myself looking at the indices when I check the time, and so the applied Roman numerals being reversed didn’t actually help much. The clearest reminder was that I’d look down at the watch and then the hands would have advanced but in the wrong direction. I imagine if I were to own this, I’d get used to it and deal with the short adjustment period each time I put it on — or just not bother and enjoy the watch as a piece of jewelry.
The dial itself is made of a stone called carnelian, which means that each of the 200 Santos-Dumont Rewinds will have a unique dial. For this particular model, and I imagine across the board, I found that the stone dial looked dirty in some lights, bright red in others, and a deep garnet in others. While it’s special in that it’s a stone dial, and I appreciate the variability it offers, part of me would have preferred a simple cherry red sunburst. The handset also harkens back to a vintage design instead of the classic Cartier sword hands. The brand describes these as “apple” hands, and I suppose I can see that in the way that anything that’s round could be an apple.
One of my favorite elements of the entire watch, though, is Alberto Santos-Dumont’s signature on the caseback, engraved, filled with red to echo the dial, and then reflected immediately below. Cartier states, “This limited edition follows in the magical and unprecedented footsteps of the aviator Alberto Santos-Dumont, for whom anything is possible.” The signature is a nice touch that offers some support to that tenuous link the brand attempts to make to the famed pilot and namesake of the brand’s most popular watch collections. Under the caseback, Cartier has used the hand-wound caliber 230 MC, with the gearing reversed to allow for the novel time display. It runs at 21,600vph with a 38-hour power reserve.
If this watch weren’t so damn beautiful (notwithstanding the stone dial occasionally looking dirty), then it would be an absolute flop, but implemented with the Santos-Dumont platform, it manages to work as a fun piece of quirk. The Cartier Santos-Dumont Rewind (Ref. WGSA0102) is limited to 200 pieces and priced at $38,400 USD, meaning no one is buying this as their only watch. As such, it’s bound to expand an already impressive collection with a bit of silliness that still manages to be sophisticated. For more information, please visit the Cartier website.
