Santos WSSA0029

The watch that started as a favor between friends, still the easiest square case to live with.

In 1904, Louis Cartier solved a problem for the Brazilian aviator Alberto Santos-Dumont, who wanted to read the time without taking his hands off the controls, and the friendship between those two produced one of the first wristwatches anyone wore on purpose. What makes the Santos work on the wrist over a century later is that the square case never sits like a square; the horns curve away in one uninterrupted line so the bracelet falls without a gap or a pinch. The exposed screws on the bezel are the detail everyone recognizes, and they keep a white dial from reading as anodyne. The medium size lands in that useful middle where it reads as a dress watch but never feels precious about it, which is why it ends up being the one you reach for on ordinary days. It goes to dinner without explanation and gets worn to work the next morning, and it has been copied often enough that you notice immediately when you are wearing the original.