Cartier Santos Octagon black lacquer dial “Or massif”

This watch, this dial to be more precise, should not exist. Though it does. We know of two dial variations besides the white ones on the Cartier Santos Carrée as well as Octagon versions: the “ghost” dial also known as “gunmetal” as well as the “burgundy” dial. Both are “swiss” signed. We also know of the even rarer special dial variations including stone dials, blue lacquer dials, etc. All “Paris” signed. Besides those, there are no more known dial variations BUT black lacquer dials which were ONLY used for special request dials, mostly seen with Khanjar logos, those are “swiss” signed, unlike the “Paris” signed onyx dials which only come with diamond setting. Now in theory there should not be any “swiss” signed black lacquer dial in existence without co-signing… but there is! This is second Cartier Santos with black lacquer dial to ever appear publicly, and the first Octagon version. I believe those dials were made for special request watches but never got logo-prints and then found their way into normal delivery watches, eventhough it seems wrong to call anything about this watch “normal”. The dial itself is the star of the show, but the case is in no way less special. It is in incredible, unpolished condition with some patina to the gold already indicating it has never been polished and only very rarely been worn. Also the non-allongé bracelet has no stretch to it and has the perfect bevels as well as finish to it. The dial itself is in good and clean condition but has some spiderwebs to it which is well known from the lacquered Cartier dials from that time. It doesn’t get much more special regarding the 1978 onwards Cartier Santos collection and we’re proud to present it to you.