There was a time - not so long ago - when telling the time required a theatrical gesture: dipping your hand into your pocket, pulling on a small chain and proudly unsheathing your pocket watch. An elegant ritual... as long as you weren't flying a plane. This was exactly the problem faced by Alberto Santos-Dumont in 1904. The Brazilian aviator, a veritable star of the Parisian Belle Époque , spent his days flying over the Bois de Boulogne with his airships and his first planes.
But getting a watch out of his pocket to time his flights is not only complicated, it's dangerous! So he entrusted his problem to his friend Louis Cartier, heir to the prestigious jewelry house founded in 1847 by his grandfather. Cartier designed a flat, easy-to-read watch for the aviator, attached to a leather strap that could be worn... on the wrist. A small revolution for its time!
The Santos was born, marketed from 1911, like the Tonneau in 1906, symbols of audacity and modernity. It quickly won over Parisians, who adopted the new, much more practical format. Over time, the wristwatch became a worldwide standard, eclipsing its pocket watch ancestor. As for Cartier, it has just signed one of the greatest transformations in the history of watchmaking... proving that, to revolutionize the world, sometimes all you need is a friend in trouble!
