Mens Diamond Cartier Travel Clock Replica Buying Review

Cartier has been well known for decades among royalty and collectors of fine objects for their jewelry and Cartier Travel Clock Replica. But it was only in the 80s that they made a real breakthrough to become well-known among the general public.

A possible reason why this had taken so long to happen, is that Tank watches, and also others like the Santos, Tortue or Tonneau, were always made in gold or platinum and, therefore, were not always within reach for everyone.

But a change in the maisons vision in the late 70s made Cartier accessible to a larger audience. In 1978, the gentleman who was assigned as Marketing Manager of Cartier at the time, Dominique Perrin, came up with a clever idea, to launch an affordable sports watch, based on the legendary Santos Dumont. The watch needed to appeal to a younger crowd and fit a variety of lifestyles.

The answer was steel, a material Cartier had not worked with before for watches. Other than a black bakelite Santos in 1924, this was one of the first, or may be the first watch by Cartier, that was not made in a precious metal.

However, in order to give the new watch a sense of luxury still, Perrin and his team decided to launch the model in steel with gold accents. A daring combination, since the mix of steel and gold was not common at all, at that time.

Cartier was one of the first, if not the first company to introduce this new trend. So, the Santos was actually born to be a two-tone timepiece. The screws on the bezel and the screws on the bracelet of the watch, in gold, were the right elements to highlight the combination of these two metals. There have not been many timepieces since, even at Cartier, that look so good in two-tone as the Santos.

To be precise, the launch of Dominique Perrins creation was in 1978, the 20th of October. It took place in the Muse de lAir in Paris. And what a great choice that was, to organize the Gala over there. Since this is the place where the airplane of aviation pioneer Alberto Santos-Dumont, named Demoiselles, can still be found. The Santos went on to become a huge success and turned into one of those watches that you had to have.

Shortly after, an all steel model was released that increased the Santos popularity, quiet, substantially. Fame, however, also has its down side and it did not take long before the first copies of the watch flooded Europe and the US.

This new problem was almost impossible to beat. Despite the fact that Cartier launched different versions, like a Moon phase model, a round, an octagonal model and even a chronograph; the classic Santos was the most copied watch in the world for many years.

In 1987, the Santos was drastically revised, renamed and relaunched as the Santos Galbe. The case lost its boxy looks and became more curved, smooth and fit better on the wrist than the original Santos.

Most models were powered with a quartz caliber, but there were exceptions, like this limited edition with grey dial, version that was supplied with the 2000 calibre. 2000 pieces were made with the grey dial and 2000 more with a light blue dial. Almost none of them have found their way to the second-hand market yet. The last change was the introduction of the Santos Galbe XL, in 2005.

The larger dimension of 32 x 45.5mm was a result of a strong demand for larger watches. The XL was an automatic watch, with an ETA 049 caliber. For the first time, the cut out for the date window did not occupy the number 3 or number 6 and was ideally placed between the numbers 4 and 5. This was a huge visual improvement.

From an aesthetic point of view, the XL is or was very well balanced and was, possibly, the best-looking Santos since its introduction. The name Santos Galbe has become, in the meantime, the common name for all Santos watches, but in fact, only the models made after 1987, were Galbe models.

Around 2016, there was some ruckus in the public media and questions even popped up on my Instagram account, asking why the model had disappeared, from the official Cartier websites. This was a first, since it was introduced in 1978. The watch became sold out at boutiques and was not being produced anymore.