At SIHH in 2019, Cartier released something very special, and oddly, it was powered by stock standard quartz. The Cartier Santos-Dumont was met with a standing ovation, not just because it was remarkably faithful to some of the earliest watch designs from Cartier, but it was also slim and relatively affordable thanks to that humble quartz movement. The real boldness of the piece was in its diminutive size and thinness. It was something of a redefined version of masculine style. And it was a bullseye. Perhaps the only thing it lacked, for the watch journalists who care deeply about such things at least, was some more moving parts. Cartier has answered those prayers with the release of the Cartier Santos-Dumont XL with a manual winding movement. The new movement will be available in steel, two-tone and rose gold. Looking past the movement just briefly, let’s talk about that XL new case. It’s not as significant as you might think. The case measures a still very wearable 46.6mm by 33.9mm and is genuinely slimline at only 7.5mm thick. This is only 0.2mm thicker than the quartz references from 2019, which is an impressive concession considering how the slimness of the 2019 reference caused…
The post INTRODUCING: The new Cartier Santos-Dumont XL gets a mechanical upgrade and adds just 0.2mm in thickness appeared first on Time and Tide Watches.