Cartier Santos Dumont Watches

If you’re looking for a complicated watch to beat all other complications, perhaps you’d consider a tourbillon. Bold, dramatic and more fiddly than inserting an HDMI lead without looking, it’s surely one of the most impressive visual displays of high watchmaking. And the perpetual calendar, with its ability to tell you your precise location in time for many, many decades without adjustment, is surely one of the most staggering feats of micro engineering achievement. How about this little Cartier, then? It seems tame, but looks can be deceiving, because inside it hides the most incredible complication ever made.

If you’ve clicked on this, there’s a high chance that you have at least a passing interest in watches and timekeeping, beyond simply being aware of the time and wanting to know what the time is exactly. There’s also a chance you’re the kind of person who wants to further their knowledge and understanding of watches and timekeeping, and that’s good, because that’s exactly what’s about to happen.

Think of steel and gold and you may well think of white suits with rolled-up sleeves, the Ferrari Testarossa and awful, awful haircuts, but it may well be that the association is a little unfair. As easy as it is to picture a bi-metal watch worn on an incredibly loose bracelet around an over-tanned wrist, shrouded in cigar smoke, perhaps it’s time to give the plain and precious metal combo a second chance—with one small alteration.

You may think that all Cartier watches are all small, rectangular and dressed with Roman numerals, and for the most part you'd be right, but just because that's the rule doesn't mean there aren't exceptions. This is what happens when the famous French jeweller lets its hair down: the Cartier Rotonde de Cartier Central Chronograph.