How to get Taylor Swift’s engagement Cartier watch look without breaking the bank – no fakes, no homages
Zach BlassIt is no secret that the watch community skews more male, so we have no illusions that the Taylor Swift engagement reveal has you spit-taking in excitement. When it comes to celebrity watch spotting, though, we tend to see more expensive watches on their wrist – whether Taylor’s Cartier or Louis Vuitton pieces or her fiance Travis Kelce’s roster of Rolexes. So, if you or your partner are in the market for a piece that resembles her trusted yellow gold and diamond-set quartz Santos Demoiselle, but don’t have the good fortune of having a precious metal Cartier-level budget, here is an alternative you can consider.
Naturally, we would never endorse counterfeits here on the site. Therefore, I have limited my search for an alternative to exclude any fakes or vaguely legal homages. I also wanted to aim for less than US$500. Fortunately, Citizen has a model called the Petite Palidoro that could possibly be one of the best budget alternatives to get the Taylor engagement watch look. It is a 28mm-width watch that admittedly has a more elongated, rectangular shape that’s more similar to a Cintrée rather than a Santos or Santos-Dumont shape… But it does offer a yellow-gold-like look with its stainless steel case and bracelet, both rendered in gold-tone.
The lugs are set with crystals on each side, so while it does not have a full diamond-set bezel, there is a semblance of the bling seen on Taylor Swift’s Cartier Santos Demoiselle. The distinct Citizen flex at play here, however, is the fact that the Japanese maestro of all things light-powered watches is able to pair its Eco-Drive technology with a white mother-of-pearl dial that light is able to pass through and keep the watch perpetually charged and running. And this Taylor Swift engagement watch alternative would only set you back US$425.
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That being said, if you have the budget, of course, the Cartier Santos Demoiselle Quartz is an excellent, timeless, and precious yet hassle-free option to add to your collection. But I suspect most of us do not necessarily have a spare US$20K lying around…