Louis Cartier (1875-1942), grandson of the founder of the famous French luxury brand, follows in the footsteps of his ancestors who were both watchmaker-jeweller and jeweller-watchmaker. When he is at the head of the company, a real creative impulse seizes the house. It is to him that we owe the first design of the famous Cartier Santos, born in 1904 and produced from 1908 onwards. It takes its name from Al-berto Santos-Dumont, a great adventurer of the air and a great friend of Louis Cartier, who was at the origin of the commission. Only very few Santos were produced until the 1970s, so this model is exceptionally rare: a milestone in watchmaking history.

Between the 1920s and 1930s, he filed the largest number of patents in his history. The company sought to surpass itself both in design and technology. The mention on the dial "Bte SGDG" is thus the abbrevia-tion of "without government guarantee", a legal statement by which the government disclaims all responsibility for the proper functioning of the patented device. This mention, instituted by a law of 1844, disappeared in 1969 and thus constitutes an im-portant chronological marker in French watchmaking.