In 1904, aviation pioneer Alberto Santos-Dumont was in Paris, celebrating his latest aeronautic achievement, when he complained to his friend Louis Cartier about the impracticality of checking the time when flying. This cumbersome and potentially dangerous move involved reaching for his pocket watch, opening the case and returning it, while keeping his hands on the plane’s controls.

The watchmaker took up the challenge, designing a timepiece his pilot pal could read easily. Santos-Dumont wore it every time he flew, consulting the flat watch, its neat leather strap affixed to his wrist, secured by a buckle. It was one of the earliest wristwatches for men, even though women’s wristwatches had been around for a while, and Cartier named it after his friend.

The Santos was mass produced and went on sale in 1911, proving to be a success. Many iterations have been created over the decades in various stylings. The Cartier Santos-Dumont Skeleton is a great example of how the original has evolved, and how its watchmakers have accomplished a technical feat in blending the mechanical manual winding in-house movement with the open-worked architecture, creating a harmonious whole that looks both vintage and hi-tech.

Despite the many big, chunky beasts in the crowded contemporary pilot’s watch market, the ever-elegant Santos can relax in its historical supremacy as the first ever pilot’s watch.

Cartier Santos-Dumont Skeleton watch, XL model, 18-carat white gold, £47,500; cartier.co.uk