Cartier and the Santos-Dumont stand for the watchmaking friendship of century. While the timepiece uniting them has shone in multiple iterations, this particular one displays unique and playful creativity. The previous openworked versions featured the emblematic Roman numerals, now succeeded by an extremely pure skeleton structure bathed in gold and blue, overflown by a miniature reproduction of the flying dandy’s plane, the Demoiselle built in 1907. This yellow gold version features a marine lacquer hand-applied to the smallest details: bezel, case, skeletonized bridges. The movement disappears into the background, its various parts occupying the space: the barrel in one corner, the escapement in the other, and the oscillating aircraft that single-handedly takes up a good third of the area. A timepiece for those with their feet on the ground and their head in the stars.
Cartier Santos-Dumont Skeleton Micro-rotor
CASE: yellow gold, anti-reflective sapphire crystal and caseback, water-resistant to 30m (3 bar)
SIZE: 31.4mm X 43.5mm, 8mm thick
MOVEMENT: mechanical self-winding, skeletonized Caliber 9629 MC, 212 components, 4Hz, 46h power reserve
FUNCTIONS: hours, minutes
STRAP: alligator leather, pin buckle
PRICE: CHF 40,000
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