The Tank Watch by Cartier

In the watchmaking domain, it was a question that gnawed at the minds of the greatest from the very first years of the 20th century: how to incorporate circular time into the line of a pure bracelet that would integrate the casing’s fasteners into the design all while being a prolonging of the very same bracelet? After a number of attempts, Cartier was finally able to whip up a timepiece combining all the demands of modernity. The year was 1917, the Tank had just seen the light of day and with it opened a new era in watchmaking. It was said that “A tank has rolled through Cartier.” Called the Tank because its silhouette is owed to the Renault tank: seen from the top, the shafts become the rolling tracks, the casing the vehicle’s binnacle. While it may be a timepiece that initially appears, in reality the Tank brings with it an entirely new form, a style, an elegance, an unparalleled trajectory. In short, the Tank would enter the world as a complete and resolutely modern turn-around. An instrument to measure time that put its nose up at every tradition by serving as a bridge between eras – and it couldn’t have happened any other way. The Tank’s aesthetics are part of the Cartier style equation: with a guilloché dial, railroad graphic, and black Roman numerals engraved onto white or white on black, the Tank became a watchmaking reference. It was thus in 1917 that the jewelry-maker sketched out the first prototype for the watch. In peace time, the prototype was offered to General John Pershing, commander of the American expeditionary force in Europe. Its success was immediate.

A figurehead before its time for a trend acclaimed for the purity of its lines and its quest for new forms, the Tank would soon come out in a jewelry version as well, playing with the boundaries between masculine and feminine. Indeed, liberty and elegance have no gender. In the 40s, the Tank watch first appeared on the international scene: on the wrists of actors, writers, or artists, it was showed off as a demonstration of perfect elegance. Whatever the era, its strength lies in breaking clean with a certain taste for formalness. In 1987, Cartier designed the Tank Américaine – a rectangular form that was more compact, rounding off the shafts’ instep. A marvel in watchmaking and style that plays with geometry, alternating between keen and soft with its angles and curves, the Tank Américaine is also the first Cartier watch to feature a curved and waterproof casing. The Tank Américaine can be read as a manifesto of classicism, a force combined with the discretion of its elongated and slightly cambered form make it a great classic. But while it may be a dressier watch, it’s strength is nonetheless present and accounted for – generous and massive, some would see it as an homage to the Tank watch offered to General Pershing… Finally, the Tank is Cartier watchmaking’s praise to dandy-ism. As Jean-Charles de Castelbajac would write in 1994: “If every tank was made by Cartier, we’d have time to live in peace !”