TIMEPIECES: The Santos 100 Skeleton

The Cartier Santos 100 Skeleton.

This entry is a little unusual for me, primarily because I am not a huge fan of Cartier Santos watches nor am I a fan of watches where you can see the mechanical parts from the front instead of the back.

I always thought it was too hard to read the time.

In any case, the Santos 100 Skeleton breaks all my rules and is a stunning timepiece.  Especially the roman numerals that are integrated into the movement.

Here is a little more from an article in journal.hautehorlogerie.org:

With its total transparency, this unrivalled Cartier creation reveals more than it conceals and is the subject of a registered patent. This mechanical movement with manual winding was designed and developed by Cartier to relieve the dial of its traditional task of indicating the time.

This is thus not simply an existing movement that has been skeletonised, but rather an innovative, shaped movement that has been entirely designed to include bridges shaped as large Roman numerals and to use all of the space provided by the large palladium case.

Equipped with two barrels, the 9611 MC calibre can store sufficient energy for 72 hours of timekeeping, thus guaranteeing the long-term consistency of the mainspring and, in consequence, exceptional precision.

Visible through two sapphire crystals, the 138 painstakingly hand-made components bear witness to the excellent craftsmanship of this exclusive movement: the bridge and main plate are bevelled, the sides satin-brushed, the dial elongated and the wheels circular-grained.

Too bad Christmas is over - I would have loved to open this present up this year.