The thing about magic tricks is that once it happens, you'd want to take another look at the effect... and you're still amazed that it actually occurred. That's the feeling we had with Cartier's Santos-Dumont Rewind.

Other than the Santos de Cartier with Dual Time feature—a first, I might add—where you have a second time zone in a sub-dial at 6 o’clock, along with a night/day indicator, the Santos-Dumont features a dial that... well, we're getting ahead of ourselves. Let's begin at where it all happened; the start of the Santos.

Not only was the Cartier Santos the first pilot's watch (it was created for the aviator Alberto Santos-Dumont) but it was also the first to pioneer the square case and the first to be won on the wrist (back then, pocket watches were the norm). The model is Cartier's oldest line and hasn't deviated much from its original look (exposed screws; square-ish case, etc).

The Santos-Dumont Rewind comes in a 31.5 × 43.5mm platinum case that's 7.3mm thick; the caseback has an engraved Alberto Santos-Dumont's signature. A brown alligator leather strap with platinum ardillon buckle complements the ruby cabochon crown. Watch the apple-shaped hands sweep across the carnelian dial... backwards?

And now we come to the effect. This seemingly-regular Santos-Dumont has Roman numerals that are positioned in reverse. In fact, the timepiece is powered by a reversed 230 MC hand-wound movement, which means the hands move counter-clockwise. But why is it in reverse? Well, why not?

This isn't the first time that Cartier manufactures a timepiece that runs contrariwise. There was a one-of-a-kind timepiece—a platinum Cartier Tonneau that runs in reverse—made for architect and photographer, Hiroshi Sugimoto. It's not often that you'd see this irreverent side of Cartier. But when it does happen, it highlights the brand's willingness to go off the beaten path; much like what it did for Alberto Santos-Dumont many years ago.

The Cartier Santos-Dumont Rewind is only limited to 200 pieces. This means that when you see it—poof—it might already be gone.