TANK GOODNESS
THE war machines which lumbered across the battlefields of World War One might seem odd inspiration for a watch seen as the last word in chic, but that’s supposedly how the Cartier Tank got its name. Louis Cartier, the original genius of wristwatch design, apparently saw some French Renault battle tanks and dreamed up the case shape of this most elegant piece.
It’s probably apocryphal – the French didn’t even use the word “tank” for the armoured vehicles when the watch was produced in 1917. But whether the visual resemblance to the overhead view of an early tank is coincidental or not, the name stuck and the watch became one of the most celebrated designs of all.
BERGMAN, WARHOL
In its many variations, it would come to be sported by luminaries like Rudolph Valentino, Clark Gable, Ingrid Bergman and Andy Warhol. It remains a mainstay of the Cartier collection.
“The Tank is one of those watches where you can say that if it did not exist it would be necessary to invent it,” says Jack Forster, watch expert and author of the book Cartier: Time Art. “It was not only one of the first models that was specifically designed as a wristwatch, but it also embodied a certain kind of elegance that has really stood the test of time.”
Its great innovation was to make the lugs which hold the strap part of the case of the watch itself.
The “brancards” – the sections that flank the square dial and extend past it to the strap attachment – are what cause that resemblance to a battle tank, but they give the watch a graceful, tremendously economic silhouette. Most wristwatches at the time looked like pocket watches on straps; the Tank is plainly designed for the wrist. As such, it helped spur the general changeover from pocket watches to wristwatches that occurred subsequently.
“As far as we know this is the earliest example of this kind of approach to case design,” says Forster. “It also captured the preoccupation with rectilinear geometry so favoured in Deco era design.”
VARIATIONS
Over the decades there have been many variations – squashed Tanks, elongated Tanks, skewed Tanks, diamond-set Tanks and plenty of others in between. Two more are launched this year – the Tank Anglaise (following up on previous models the Tank Francaise and Tank Americaine), which has a fattened profile and a winding crown poking through the case itself; and an ultra-slim version of the most refined Tank iteration, the Tank Louis Cartier.
Jingoism aside, it’s the latter piece that would be my pick – a watch every bit as noble and handsome as its 1917 forbear.
Timothy Barber is UK editor of the luxury watch magazine 0024 WatchWorld.