Review of the Cartier Santos de Cartier Skeleton WHSA0016 40mm square rose gold watch

Hi, this is Tim of The 1916 Company. Welcome and thanks for logging on. If you love this watch, email me. Team also at the1916company.com for purchase, pricing, and availability questions. Today, we discuss the Cartier Santos Skeleton. I don't know if you've noticed, but Cartier is having a moment now by a large margin, the second largest watchmaker in Switzerland after Rolex. It has surged in both volume and esteem as it has become one of the most sought watch brands, almost like Porsche, which is fundamentally a mass manufacturer of cars and yet thoroughly wait-listed and over-subscribed. Cartier, in spite of serving a large-scale market, has now become a very prestigious and highly requested watch to the point that, yes, even scarcity is being discussed. This is one of the flagship models of a flagship line. The example in my hand was sold in 2022. It's full red gold. You can see massive in the hand. I measure it at 224.7 grams. It's 39.7 across, but that's not including the crown and the shoulders. 9.2 millimeters thick and somehow only 47.6 millimeters lug-to-lugs. Well, this is often discussed as the Santos Large. It's really not large. The watch is easy for me to wear on my 16 centimeter circumference wrist, and look how far inboard of my wrist the lugs are. The watch comes with two other straps, one in calfskin, one in alligator leather, both black, and they come with a separate red gold folding clasp to use with the straps. The watch is super flat flushing, will easily fit under a cuff, but it's also 100 meters water resistant. So it is a sports watch. Here's your over the top shot. I could recommend this for a wrist as small as 14 centimeters circumference. Now, the nice thing about this bracelet is the quick switch system means a push button trigger is only one click away from swapping to a different strap or bracelet. It's a very user-friendly system, and you can see in the hand quickly reassembled. The watch, of course, inspired by the original Santos created by Louis Cartier for his friend, Alberto Santos Dumont, the Brazilian aviator, then flying airships, not airplanes. And to operate such a vehicle, you needed both hands for the tillers, the cranks, the levers. It was a two-handed job. You couldn't resort to your pocket to withdraw a pocket watch. So a wrist-worn watch was the solution because when you have your hand on a tiller or a wheel, you could still look at the wrist. Almost like a driver's watch, it's legible without needing to be held. And so the Santos became the first ever pilot's watch, one of the first sports watches, and the first Cartier wristwatch. It wouldn't be produced in series until years later, but it was an important first for Cartier and for the industry. Elements like the rivet bezel and the now skeuomorphic rivets or screws on the bracelet. You can see it is a very tight tolerance. It has extremely little lateral play and there's no daylight visible between the links. It is super cinched together with countersink of link into link. And then we have the incredible smart link system where all you do is you press a little trigger on a link. And once you do that, assuming you have more of a nail than I do, pop that one out. But once you press the trigger, you release a bar that then allows you to remove the links. And you can actually remove and add links without actually using a tool. And because they're super smart at Cartier, they realized that if they let you pull this bar out, you're going to lose it. So it's actually retained by a flange that prevents it from withdrawing all the way. And it's pretty easy to just put right back together without any tools whatsoever. Just like that. Okay. Now, taking a look, you can see although the finishing is mechanical, the execution is surgical. Polish, satin, it flows together beautifully. And you can see that we've got a very robust twin-trigger double-deploying clasps. You have to press both triggers to open it up. Externally, it has the Cartier monogram. We've got a relatively thin and graceful case form, though it looks a lot like a rectangle or a square online. It's actually a fluid form. We've got a faceted cabochon on a crown that is unbranded. You know exactly who makes that. It needs no brand. And then a dial that is effectively one and the same as the movement, with elements of gilding as well as anthracite. It's very nicely done with broadsword-style hands. And you can see how the dial is cut into the iconic Cartier radially arrayed Roman numerals. Now, we're going to pull the bracelet because it's just easier to see the movement from the back. But this is the Cartier twin barrel, 72-hour power reserve, manufacture caliber. And you can see the number right there, 9619. Sized and shaped specifically for this watch, a hand and glove fit that speaks to Cartier's manufacture status. And Cartier, now out of a huge facility in Le Show de France, is able to make every single part of a watch. So, building their own movement to fit in their own case, easy to do. The movement is nicely decorated to a standard that frankly would make Audemars Piguet proud. So, this 20-joule caliber with its twin barrels achieves not just three days of power reserve, excellent rate stability, and considerable pulchritude, but it actually holds up by comparison to far more expensive watches and brands that were hitherto considered more prestigious. I'm not sure AP still is. You can also see we have openworked barrels. You can see the coiling of the mainsprings within and all the screw heads are polished, which is always a good look. And it is a four Hertz movement. So, no tricks are played to get that three-day power reserve. If you love this watch, reach out to Tim Masso at the1916company.com for purchase and pricing details.