[benbreen]

My friend Felipe is currently finishing up a PhD dissertation that features this guy (the overarching topic is the impact of aviation technology on modern Brazil). Here's an article he wrote specifically about Santos-Dumont:

http://theappendix.net/issues/2014/4/the-aviators-heart

Edit: it's a long article so here are a few highlights:

"His countenance appeared on cigar boxes and dinner plates. Toy replicas of his airships moved off the shelves at a brisk pace. Even bakers joined in, selling airship-shaped cakes with the colors of the Brazilian flag. Fashionable boutiques sold clothing and accessories inspired by his meticulous and impeccable style. Louis Cartier, a friend of his, even made a special wristwatch to use during flight, so he would not have to pull out his pocket watch while handling the controls. In fact, Santos-Dumont was responsible for making the wristwatch a fashionable accessory among men...

His showmanship and desire to share the feeling of flight led him to be part of many “firsts” in aviation history. In 1903, Aida de Acosta, a wealthy Cuban-American woman of nineteen years was visiting Paris, where she met Santos-Dumont. Fascinated with flying machines, she expressed her desire to pilot the airship herself. Surprisingly, he agreed—and after a few lessons, allowed her to fly it around Paris while he followed her on a bicycle shouting instructions from below (airship no. 9 only had a 3 horsepower engine and could barely conquer a light breeze). This made Acosta the first woman in history to fly a powered aircraft of any sort, some six months before the Wright Brothers first took flight in the United States."

[kaolinite]

Regarding the wristwatch, not quite true, but almost (I'm nitpicking, really - I recently spent some time looking into this).

The wristwatch became popular with men shortly before as they were given to soldiers at the very end of 1800s. Previously seen as an accessory only for women, the use of watches in war (as it wasn't practical to pull out a pocket watch) made them eventually become fashionable.

That said, the watch produced for Santos-Dumont by Cartier did become the first widely available watch for men, and is still on sale today, in a more modern form: http://www.cartier.co.uk/collections/watches/mens-watches/sa...

[benbreen]

Wow, I had no idea it was still being sold! Thanks for this, that's interesting. Also, good to know what an ideal gift for my friend would be if I ever hit it rich.

That claim about wristwatches not being popular among men until Santos-Dumont surprised me when I originally read it - it seems like attaching an 18th century style pocket watch to a band would've been something that became trendy earlier. Know any good articles on the topic of pre 20th century watches?

[kaolinite]

That really would make a fantastic gift for your friend, although you're right - they are rather expensive :-)

> That claim about wristwatches not being popular...

Agreed, it certainly seems obvious. I suspect at the time there may have been some advances that allowed smaller wrist watches, and that's what allowed them to take off - however that's just a guess. Women's watches at the time were quite large and elaborate, covered in jewels and such.

There's quite a good NYTimes article you might like, though it doesn't go into much detail about Santos-Dumont: http://mobile.nytimes.com/2013/10/23/fashion/wrist-watches-f...

There's also a bit more information on the Cartier Santos watch, including its modern variants, here: http://monochrome-watches.com/history-of-the-pilot-watch-par...