New models with a flexible mesh bracelet, inspired by Cartier designs from 100 years ago.
In 1904, Louis Cartier designed a watch for his friend Alberto Santos-Dumont, a Brazilian aviator who needed to tell time without letting go of the airplane's controls. His creation became one of the first wristwatches in history. Over 100 years later, Cartier returns to the original design, presenting a large model (LM). The highlight of the new model is a flexible mesh bracelet, inspired by Cartier watches from the 1920s.
The watches come with cases measuring 43.5 x 31.4 x 7.3 mm. Depending on the version, they are available in 18-carat yellow gold or 950 platinum. The familiar square Cartier Santos case features softly rounded corners, 8 visible screws on the bezel, and a crown adorned with a blue cabochon in the gold models. For the platinum version, a red cabochon is traditionally used.
The case has a sufficiently thin profile to hide under a shirt cuff. Given its classic "dress watch" nature, the water resistance here is symbolic - 30 meters.
This series features a model with an obsidian dial. The volcanic stone, sourced in Mexico, is cut to a thickness of just 0.3 mm and is as fragile as glass. When the lighting changes, tiny air bubbles trapped inside the material create shimmering reflections on the dial. Since such dials are never identical, each piece in this series is unique.
The other two new models feature silver dials with a sunburst finish and a more classic style (black Roman numerals, black minute scale, and blue blued-steel hands).
All three models operate on the caliber 430 MC. This is a manual-winding Cartier caliber, which due to its thinness, does not increase the thickness of the case.
As mentioned above, the flexible bracelet of the watch is inspired by the bracelets Cartier custom-made in the 1920s. The bracelet mesh consists of 15 rows and has a total of 394 individual links, each 1.15 mm thick. Each link is processed and assembled into the bracelet construction at the Cartier manufacture.