Black Dial 2960 Cartier Santos Carrée Or Massif

The 2960 Or Massif is a difficult enough hunt already in this market, but meet the black dial. This is an impossibly uncommon Santos. It’s probably one of fewer than five, fairly concretely. Certainly, only two are known. They very likely have ties to Oman origin, despite no khanjar on the dial. And, as we all know, black on gold is a perfect combination. In the same way that the JPS is probably the ultimate Daytona, this is arguably the ultimate vintage Santos, barring a khanjar dialed 2960.

Interestingly, a different Santos Carrée Or Massif with a khanjar came to auction last November, which is arguably the only market precedent. That watch hammered at 54K USD. There are just one or two other known full sized 29x40mm case, Khanjar Santos. But this is a different thing. It’s just a black numeral-less dial. Not onyx either, though we have seen smaller cased Santos with stone dials. It’s simply conjecture, but given that all other rare dial Or Massif 2960 were Oman special orders, it’s probably not unlikely that this was as well. I’d love for one of our friends at Cartier to do some hunting around the archives, if anyone gets a moment.

True vintage Santos, 1920s, will always hold the ground of significance. But the Santos really became what it is today in 1978 when Dominique Perrin took the Santos Dumont and gave it the famous bracelet we know today. It was marketed toward a more sporting, younger audience, and it worked. So much so that the Oman royal family took notice and started order small batches. That, alone, is madness. But I love the idea of this watch being gifted to some important foreign dignitary or head of state, and somehow now having found its way to market all these years later. Who knows how accurate that is. What we do know is that Black dial 2960s are so uncommon they may as well not exist. For the Middle Eastern Gordon Gekko, then, who also doesn’t exist.

This example is pretty strong overall. The case probably has seen a quite light polish. The dial shows nothing that I can see. However, I’m not louping it just examining images the same as you. So take this all with a grain of salt. But it appears as well preserved as you could reasonably hope for something this rare. It comes from a well-regarded, smaller German retailer.