Wristwatches and aviation

All right, I know this is gonna be a bit long, but I was psyched to learn that we all owe the fact we can wear wristwatches to the Brazilian father of aviation. I know that the Wright brothers, Orville and Wilbur, were the two Americans who are generally credited with inventing and building the world's first successful airplane and making the first controlled, powered and sustained heavier-than-air human flight, on December 17, 1903. But a few years earlier, Alberto Santos Dumont, heir of a prosperous coffee producer family in Brazil, decided to dedicate himself to science studies in Paris.

Santos Dumont designed, built, and flew the first practical dirigible balloons. In doing so, he became the first person to demonstrate that routine, controlled flight was possible. This "conquest of the air", in particular winning the Deutsch de la Meurthe prize on October 19, 1901 on a flight that rounded the Eiffel Tower, made him one of the most famous people in the world during the early 20th century.

OK, now, here's the tid bit that got me so proud of my home country for reasons that have nothing to do with month long vacation no matter how long you've worked at a place, carnival, soccer (Brazil is the only country to have won the World Cup 5 times) or caipirinha (the national drink). The wristwatch had already been invented by Patek Philippe, decades earlier, but Santos Dumont played an important role in popularizing its use by men in the early 20th century. Before him wristwatches were generally worn only by women (as jewels), as men favoured pocket watches.

In 1904, while celebrating his winning of the Deutsch Prize at Maxim's Restaurant in Paris, Santos Dumont complained to his friend Louis Cartier about the difficulty of checking his pocket watch to time his performance during flight. Santos Dumont then asked Cartier to come up with an alternative that would allow him to keep both hands on the controls. Cartier went to work on the problem and the result was a watch with a leather band and a small buckle, to be worn on the wrist. Ta dah!!

Santos Dumont never took off again without his personal Cartier wristwatch, and he used it to check his personal record for a 220 m (730 ft) flight, achieved in twenty-one seconds, on November 12, 1906. The Santos Dumont watch was officially displayed on October 20, 1979 at the Paris Air Museum next to the 1908 Demoiselle, the last aircraft that he built.

I love learning something new every day :-)