By TEEEMPUS · Published
You spot a Santos by its screws: eight of them on a square steel bezel, and more on the bracelet. Cartier named the watch for Alberto Santos-Dumont, a Brazilian aviator and a friend of Louis Cartier, and Bucherer, which sells it in the US, dates the first one to 1904. Today's large steel Santos de Cartier, reference WSSA0018, is 39.8 mm wide, with a silvered dial, black Roman numerals, blue sword-shaped hands and Cartier's automatic calibre 1847 MC. In the US it lists at $9,200.
Square watches with screws on the bezel are rare, which is why this list of watches like the Cartier Santos has only four. We went through what's on sale in the US today and kept the four that look like it, from $179 to $5,250, rather than pad the list with square watches that have no screws at all. Two more came close: another Specht & Söhne homage, the one with screws on its bezel, has sold out, and the Bell & Ross BR-05 has a round dial.
Each pick comes with what it gets wrong. Prices are regular US list prices from the brands' own sites, not sale prices, checked on 25 October 2026. The photos are to scale, so if a watch looks smaller here, it is. Two of the four are marked as homages, the watch world's word for a watch that follows a famous design on purpose, under its own name. Where we couldn't confirm that Amazon lists the exact watch, its Amazon button runs a search instead.
This is the watch every pick is measured against, the Santos de Cartier in its large size, reference WSSA0018:
Nothing below has all of it. Three of the four have screws on the bezel, but only the Herbelin pairs them with a steel bracelet, and its dial is the furthest from the Santos's. The Asorock and the Santos-Dumont come on leather, which is less of a departure than it sounds, since the Santos comes with a calfskin strap too. Only the Asorock and the Herbelin are automatic, like the Santos.
| Watch | US list price | Case (width x length) | Bezel | Bracelet or strap | Movement |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Specht & Söhne SP0011Q3 (homage) | $179 | 34 x 45 mm | Square, no screws | Steel bracelet | Quartz (VH31) |
| Asorock Diplomat (homage) | $399 | 41 mm wide | Square, 8 screws | Black leather strap | Automatic |
| Herbelin Cap Camarat Square Automatic | $1,090 | 39 x 39 mm | Square, 6 screws | Steel bracelet | Automatic (Sellita SW200-1) |
| Cartier Santos-Dumont, large | $5,250 | 31.4 x 43.5 mm | Square, 8 screws | Navy alligator strap | Quartz |
| Cartier Santos de Cartier, large, for comparison | $9,200 | 39.8 x 47.5 mm | Square, 8 screws | Steel bracelet | Automatic (1847 MC) |
This is the cheapest way into the Santos's outline and its bracelet, as long as you can live without the screws on the bezel. The SP0011Q3 has a square 316L steel case, 34 mm wide, 45 mm from lug to lug and 8.6 mm thick, on a steel bracelet with screw heads on its links, as the Santos's bracelet has. The dial is a cream gradient with black Roman numerals, under a sapphire crystal, and the crown screws down. It's water resistant to 50 metres, and inside is a Japanese VH31 quartz movement.
What you give up is the screws. There are none on the bezel, the dial is cream rather than silvered, the hands are silver rather than blue, and a round minute track sits in the middle where the Santos's is square. It's 5.8 mm narrower than the Santos, it has no date, and the crown has no blue stone. The photo is Specht & Söhne's own render, not a photograph. It costs $179, about a fiftieth of the Santos's price, and Specht & Söhne's store showed it on sale for $134 when we checked on 25 October 2026. The white-dial version, SP0011Q7, is closer in colour, but it was sold out.
Under $1,000, nothing here looks more like the Santos, which is why we call it best value. Asorock says plainly that the Diplomat is a homage to the Santos, and it shows: eight screws on a square steel bezel, black Roman numerals, blue hands, a date at 6 and a blue stone on the crown. The 316L steel case is 41 mm wide, barely more than the Santos's 39.8, under a sapphire crystal, and it's water resistant to 50 metres.
What you give up is the bracelet. Asorock's text says the band is steel, but every photo and its own infographic show black leather, so expect a strap. At 13 mm the case is 3.6 mm thicker than the Santos, Asorock doesn't publish its length, the hands have white inserts the Santos's don't, and the middle of the dial has a sunburst pattern. Asorock's page names two different makers for the movement, so all we can tell you is that it's automatic. It's rated to half the Santos's water resistance. It costs $399, a twenty-third of the Santos's price. When we checked on 25 October 2026, Asorock's store showed it on sale for $250, next to a countdown timer.
We call this one best built. The Cap Camarat shares the Santos's square case, screws on the bezel and a steel bracelet that runs straight out of the case, and it's the one pick that matches the Santos on paper: an automatic movement, here the Swiss Sellita SW200-1, under a sapphire crystal, with 100 metres of water resistance, the same as the Santos. The steel case is 39 x 39 mm, with a see-through caseback, the bracelet closes with a deployant clasp, and Herbelin gives the power reserve as 41 hours.
What you give up is the Santos's face. The dial is what Herbelin calls Arctic Blue, with horizontal stripes and baton markers, so there are no Roman numerals and no blue hands, and the bezel has six screws to the Santos's eight. It does keep a date at 6. Herbelin's US store listed it at $1,090, about an eighth of the Santos's price, but the store converts its prices from euros, so that may not be a fixed US price. The quartz version, 12246B25, has the same 39 x 39 mm case and dial colour at 7.8 mm thick, with a Ronda 715 movement, and was listed at $750 on 25 October 2026.
If you want the Santos's face and don't mind a smaller watch on a strap, this is the closest you'll get, because it's Cartier's own. The Santos-Dumont has the same square bezel with eight screws, black Roman numerals and blue hands on a silver dial, and the photo shows the blue stone on the crown too. The large size is 31.4 mm wide, 43.5 mm long and 7.3 mm thick, in steel, on a navy alligator strap, under a sapphire crystal.
What you give up is size, the bracelet and the automatic movement. It's 8.4 mm narrower than the Santos, as the photo shows, it runs on quartz, and it's water resistant to 30 metres against the Santos's 100. There's no date. It's also 2 mm thinner, if that counts as a loss. It costs $5,250, about half of the Santos's price. Cartier makes a smaller one too, WSSA0086, 27.5 mm wide, which listed at $4,800 on 25 October 2026.
