Cartier is showing at the 2026 Watches and Wonders emphasizing a legacy that dates back to the introduction of one of the first modern wristwatches in 1904, created for aviator Alberto Santos-Dumont — an origin story that continues to inform the brand’s place within the industry.
Rather than competing on technical escalation — a must-watch race each year at the fair — Cartier continues to focus on design-led updates to its core icons.
This season, its legacy approach centers on the Santos-Dumont, reworked in yellow gold and gold and steel with a new flexible bracelet inspired by the flexibility of the first made-to-measure metal watch bracelets developed by the maison in the 1920s. The LM-size model introduces a mesh construction composed of 394 finely machined links arranged in 15 rows, designed to sit with a near-fabric-like fluidity on the wrist. Paired with a gilded obsidian dial — cut to just 0.3mm and polished to reveal its natural iridescence — the watch leans heavily into materiality, emphasizing craft and finish.
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“The new Santos-Dumont emphasizes its resemblance to the original shape, and the bracelet, at once fluid and precious, is an expression of contemporary elegance,” Pierre Rainero, Cartier’s director of image, style and heritage, said of the debut.
The update builds on Cartier’s exacting cadence at the fair. Last year the company turned its attention to its Tank collections with the Tank à Guichets, a range of refined variations that reinforced its commitment to proportion and purity of line. That same approach carries through here, with purposeful adjustments, an emphasis less on reinvention and more on refinement — an approach that continues to define its place in the market.
