[94SilverCab]

1904 - The first Santos watch was created by Louis Cartier, as he designed a watch to be worn on wrist with a leather strap for his friend Alberto Santos-Dumont, a Brazilian aviator.



A visit to the Mullin Museum is an automotive treat, as I posted in another thread, but, for watch lovers there is another treat...the original watch from 1904 as described above...



Jay

Partial Post: Please Login or Register to read the full post.

[Langley968]

Very interesting.

As a teenager growing up in Brazil, I was taught that Albert Santos-Dumont was the "Pai da Aviacao", which translated means "Father of Aviation". Brazilians lay claim to the first flight of a "proprer" airplane, even though it took place in Paris. Alberto was studying / living in Europe at the time. The Wright bothers are credited with having flown a glider, which just happened to have a motor to keep it afloat a bit longer. It did not take off on it's own power...

Partial Post: Please Login or Register to read the full post.

[ds968]

Superb watch. And as a watch fanatic I am ashamed to admit I had no idea wrist watches were made as early as 1904 ! Was under the impression only pocket watches were available until the early twenties.. Learn something every day I suppose...

Partial Post: Please Login or Register to read the full post.

[94SilverCab]

How about that?...not just a pretty face <img src="/forum/images/smilies/968/ninja.gif" class="smilie" alt="" />





Hi Jay,



Thank you for your e-mail. You are correct that the watch was designed for Santos Dumont by Cartier in 1904 so we have changed the placard. However, we cannot confirm that the watch was produced for public wear during that year. Thank you again for your input and we hope to see you at the museum again soon.

Best regards,



Ruby Talbot

Mullin Automotive Museum

1421 Emerson Avenue

Oxnard, CA 93033

213-700-6620

www.mullinautomotivemuseum.com



[indent]



[indent]





















[indent]





-------- Original Message --------

Subject: Question regarding the Cartier wristwatch in your collection

From: Jay Kravitz <jkravitz@verizon.net>

Date: Mon, April 22, 2013 9:59 am

To: ruby.talbot@mullinautomotivemuseum.com













Dear Ms. Talbot,











My friends and I thoroughly enjoyed our private tour of the Mullin Collection on Tuesday, April 16[sup]th[/sup]. Thank you for being so generous with your time, and helping to bring these classic cars to life.











In addition to the wonderful automobiles I was intrigued by the Cartier wristwatch and came home to look up some more details about its history and origin. I believe that your display case indicates that the watch was created in 1909, however, Wikipedia attributes this watch to 1904. I was wondering if you could clarify this information, or perhaps contact Wikipedia to correctly attribute the date on their site.











1904 - The first Santos watch was created by Louis Cartier, as he designed a watch to be worn on wrist with a leather strap for his friend Alberto Santos-Dumont, a Brazilian aviator.











Thank you again for such a wonderful experience.











Regards,











Jay [/indent][/indent][/indent]

Partial Post: Please Login or Register to read the full post.

[Rap]

Jay, we historians thank you for correctly revising an inaccuracy that watch lovers seem to have missed! I like DS didn't realize watches went back so far.

Partial Post: Please Login or Register to read the full post.

[94SilverCab]

When travelling in the Demoiselle, Santos-Dumont needed to measure the time interval. The wristwatch had already been invented by Patek Philippe, decades earlier, but Santos-Dumont played an important role in popularizing its use by men in the early 20th century. Before him they were generally worn only by women (as jewels), as men favoured pocket watches.

In 1904, while celebrating his winning of the Deutsch Prize at Maxim's Restaurant in Paris, Santos-Dumont complained to his friend Louis Cartier about the difficulty of checking his pocket watch to time his performance during flight. Santos-Dumont then asked Cartier to come up with an alternative that would allow him to keep both hands on the controls. Cartier went to work on the problem and the result was a watch with a leather band and a small buckle, to be worn on the wrist.[sup][size="2"][7][/size][/sup]

Santos-Dumont never took off again without his personal Cartier wristwatch, and he used it to check his personal record for a 220 m (730 ft) flight, achieved in 21 seconds aidded by a large headwind, on 12 November 1906. The Santos-Dumont watch was officially displayed on 20 October 1979 at the Paris Air Museum next to the 1908 Demoiselle, the last aircraft that he built.

Cartier market wristwatches and sunglasses named after Santos-Dumont. [sup][size="2"][8][/size] [/sup]

Partial Post: Please Login or Register to read the full post.

[ds968]

great info ( for us geeks ) thanks for sharing

Partial Post: Please Login or Register to read the full post.