Cartier Tank watches

The Cartier Tank is the rectangular wristwatch Louis Cartier created during the First World War, inspired by the Renault tanks he saw on the Western Front. Cartier presented the prototype to General John J. Pershing of the American Expeditionary Force, and full production began in 1919. The strap runs into the case's parallel vertical sidebars, called brancards. The classic dial has Roman numerals, a chemin de fer minute track and blued steel sword hands, with a sapphire cabochon on the crown.

The line has branched many times, from the Tank Louis of 1922 to the Tank Américaine of 1989 and the Tank Française of 1996. Cartier showed the Tank Anglaise at SIHH in 2012, with the crown worked into the right-hand brancard instead of standing proud of the case. The Tank MC followed in 2013 as the first Tank designed expressly for men: 34.3 mm wide, 44 mm long and 9.5 mm high, with the in-house 1904 MC-PS calibre, a small seconds subdial, a date and a display back. The Tank MC Chronograph of 2014 uses the automatic 1904-CH MC, with a column wheel, a vertical clutch and a 48-hour power reserve, in a case 11.7 mm thick.

The Anglaise 29.8 is the 29.8 mm size, 9.5 mm thick, with a silver dial, in pink gold, yellow gold, steel, or steel and yellow gold. The Tank MC comes in steel or pink gold, with silver, grey, black, blue or chocolate dials on the three-hand model and silver or grey on the chronograph. The Tank Solo Automatic is slimmer, 31 mm wide and 7.65 mm thick, in steel or steel and pink gold with a silver dial.