Founded in Paris in 1847, Cartier stands at the very origin of the wristwatch as we know it. Louis Cartier designed the original Santos in 1904 for his friend Alberto Santos-Dumont — the Brazilian aviation pioneer who needed to read the time without releasing the controls of his aircraft — making it one of the first purpose-built wristwatches in history and the template from which the modern dress sports watch would eventually emerge. More than a century later, the Santos de Cartier remains in continuous production and continues to define the category it invented.

Reference WSSA0018 is the large model Santos de Cartier in polished and brushed stainless steel, measuring 39.8 x 47.5 mm with a thickness of just 9.08 mm. The white silvered dial carries black painted Roman numerals, a railway-track minute scale and sword-shaped hands in blued steel — unmistakably Cartier from across a room — with a date window at six o’clock. The eight exposed screws on the polished stainless steel bezel are both a structural and a design signature, drawn directly from the 1904 original. The seven-sided crown is set with a faceted synthetic spinel in the house’s signature blue. At its heart beats the Cartier Calibre 1847 MC, an in-house automatic movement with a 42-hour power reserve, visible through the transparent sapphire caseback. The scratch-resistant sapphire crystal sits above. Water resistance is rated to 100 metres. The watch is supplied with a polished and brushed stainless steel bracelet with Cartier’s QuickSwitch interchangeable system and an additional calfskin strap — both with a stainless steel folding deployant clasp.

This Cartier Santos de Cartier Large is in near mint condition and comes as a full set with factory warranty until 2030.