Cartier’s Tank is the watch that keeps on giving
Luxury watchmaking’s newly, seasonally uncoupled ‘drop’ culture means, like buses, you wait months after the industry’s formal fixture in spring, then two showstoppers arrive within a week. To wit: a Cartier celebrating a full 170 years of the Parisian grande dame making watches in all their wild and whimsical shapes.
Joining fellow Richemont watchmaker, Jaeger-LeCoultre and its own curveball last week (above), the 170-piece Tank Louis Cartier Limited Edition is a fitting tribute to the anniversary of the first-ever Cartier watch. The Tank’s iconic, oblong form may not have been coined that far back, but it is the longest-lasting of the house’s designs. And neatly, it was coined in ’17.
The clue’s in the title. While brothers Pierre and Jacques built their father’s Parisian jewellery empire in Paris, Louis’s passion for watches drove Cartier’s horological arm (now, obviously, based in Switzerland). His creations’ far-out shapes were fuelled by Cartier’s creativity in gold. But with ‘Tank’ specifically, it was a two-pronged impetus sharing common ground.
For starters, there was the gentleman of 1917 and his growing interest in wrist-worn watches over pocket, stemming from the trenches of the First World War, when (if he’d survived) he had started strapping on their pocket watches for convenience.
Secondly, while it might seem distasteful to romanticise today, the Tank’s case design drew inspiration from the footprint of the British Army’s pioneering earthbound iron-clads, gaining crucial yards on the Western Front.
Monsieur Cartier’s caterpillar-track profile has proved immortal, earning A-list endorsement from Rudolph Valentino to Muhammad Ali. For this year’s 170th commemoration, it frames a Deco geometry first seen at the Decorative Arts Exhibition of 1925: a graphic and geometric dial, denim-like in texture thanks to laser-engraved optical variations, PVD-coated in shimmering cobalt.
cartier.co.uk