Watch Paparazzi

Designer Norman Foster spotted wearing Cartier

Norman Foster, the British architect behind landmarks such as the Reichstag dome and 30 St Mary Axe, was spotted wearing one of Cartier's most intellectually coherent timepieces: the Santos Dumont Skeleton in titanium with ADLC coating, reference W2020052. The pairing is anything but accidental — it reads as a statement of design philosophy worn on the wrist.

The Cartier Santos Dumont ref. W2020052 houses a hand-wound skeletonized movement, the Manufacture Cartier calibre 9611 MC, developed entirely in-house. The bridges and plates have been openworked to their structural minimum, revealing the gear train and lever escapement in near-full visibility. Crucially, the Roman numerals — a Santos signature since Louis Cartier designed the original for aviator Alberto Santos-Dumont in 1904 — are retained not as ornament but as load-bearing elements of the dial architecture, anchoring the chapter ring while the movement breathes beneath them. The case measures 38.5 × 47.4 mm in a cushion shape, rendered in grade 23 titanium and finished with an ADLC treatment that delivers a deep, matte anthracite tone alongside formidable resistance to daily wear.

Within the collector community, the Santos Dumont Skeleton occupies a specific and respected niche. It avoids the overt complexity of tourbillons or perpetual calendars, instead presenting skeletonization as the sole complication — a purist's choice. The ADLC titanium variant in particular attracts those who prioritize wearability and material innovation over precious-metal prestige. Production volumes remain controlled, and the reference has maintained steady secondary-market interest since its introduction.

For Foster, who built a career exposing the structural logic of buildings rather than concealing it, the W2020052 is coherent self-expression. His High-Tech architecture treats steel, glass, and tensile structures as honest aesthetic language — the same argument Cartier makes with this movement. The watch is, in effect, a building section drawing worn on the wrist.

On the grey market, the Santos Dumont Skeleton ADLC titanium trades at a modest premium over retail, reflecting quiet but consistent demand. It is not a speculative flip piece; it is a keeper — the kind of watch a designer buys to wear, not to trade.