Cartier's Army of Tanks

When people say Tank, they usually mean one version of the literally hundreds of watches released under that name. Cartier have been so successful in making this collection their most famous that something was lost in the process: the many faces of the most celebrated rectangular timepiece of all times.

Roll call

There have been at least fifteen different Tanks. Tank Normale. Tank Louis Cartier. Tank Chinoise, Anglaise, Américaine and Française. Tank Asymétrique. Tank Chinoise Red. Tank Basculante. Tank Must and Tank Solo. Tank MC. A Guichets, Allongée and Cintrée. Almost all of them have been edited at least twice, often times first in the 1910s and 20s, and some of them much more than that. In anywhere from one to four sizes. In steel, all shades of gold, platinum and sometimes bedecked with diamonds or even other gems. With quartz, hand-wound, automatic, skeleton movements, and lately, solar-powered ones. The only one aspect of watchmaking that hasn't left a major mark on Cartier's favourite son is high complications. It seems that there were les than a pinchful of such models, the 2009 Tank Américaine Tourbillon Volant being the most prominent.

Historic depth

Surely, with such a long history and the separate lives that the Paris, London and New York subsidiaries have lived for so long, a more thorough investigation is required to make sure how many different types of Tank have existed. This long string of tetragons has been running uninterrupted since the first one was released in Paris in 1917, inspired that it was by the newly invented namesake armoured vehicle. At the time, tanks were just that : a tank. They were initially used as petrol-carrying vehicles, cisterns heavily plated to face the hardships of the battlefield. It's only later that they became a weapon. By then, Cartier was too heavily committed and never looked back.

Evergreen plasticity

Iconic is an overused, worn-out word, but in the case of Tank, or rather, Tanks, it is the only really fitting characterisation. It's been enjoying tremendous recognition, acclaim and success, with a handful of hiatuses, the latest one being the early 2010s when Cartier needed wider cases to fit in their newly minted high complications But the one absolute genius of this design is that it is rectangular. Obviously, it is. But what this shape allows that the circle doesn’t is to play with the height to width ratio. And Cartier have been exploiting and stretching its malleable outline with merry, abundant and imaginative energy.

Curved and warped

Take the narrowest one, the Tank Américaine. It's so slim it's almost a bangle. Take its curvier derivation, the Tank Cintrée : it's just as narrow and even more fitting. At the other end of the spectrum, the Tank Française looks square, but that's only because its dial is. The case isn't. The same effect happens with the Tank Normale, with a subtle difference. If you look at it from the side, it's quite bulbous, creating a continuous curve in all three dimensions. That objective was also that of the short-lived Tank MC. Among all of them, the Tank Basculante stands out as an outlier as its case can be reversed along the vertical axis, as opposed to that other famous reversible watch that flips left to right. The same can be said of the Tank Asymétrique, whose initial shape was warped to become a lozenge, in which the dial has also shifted, by nearly 50 degrees to the right.

Classic ratios

And then there are the numerous flavours of rectangle that sit somewhere in the vicinity of a 3:2 height to width ratio. The thickness of the brancards, i.e. the case sides, and their unique curvature play a major part in setting each one apart, The Louis Cartier from the Must from the Solo and so forth. Describing those differences is a tedious exercise...with one exception.

Exceptions to the rule

The Tank Chinoise is dressed in a case that turned all four sides into graphic elements, overlapping like piled bamboo sticks. An effect that’s all the more striking as Cartier has elected to lacquer them on some versions. Cartier's dials tend to be a signature element of the brand, with its Roman numerals and rail track. And yet they went as far as getting rid of it altogether in a stunning exception. The Tank A Guichets has a full case cover fitted with three separate windows for the hours, minutes and seconds. Given this immense array of variations, exceptions and executions, of which we haven't seen the end of yet, it is indeed safe to say that Tank is the most diverse.

Cartier Privé or Public?

The Cartier Privé collection, and before it the Collection Privée Cartier Paris, brings together the brand’s rarest and most special pieces, those that marked a discreet but refined milestone in its history. While the Tank Française or Must are part of the regular collections, where they are produced in unlimited quantities and subject to regular variations, others are subject to different treatment. These are the most particular case shapes, the more obscure specialities, and those intended to be produced exclusively in precious metal, with the one that is Cartier’s historic signature, platinum, at the forefront.

This is the case with the Tank à Guichet, Tank Chinoise, Tank Cintrée and Tank Asymétrique, whose aesthetic particularities make them separate members of the family. In quantities of 100 or 200 examples per model and per metal, these are pieces that Cartier intends for aesthetes and collectors. They are supported by regular appearances at auctions of vintage watches, often first- or second-generation pre-war examples.