The year is 1917, the world is at war, yet Louis Cartier was able to let his imagination wander and, observing the structure of the Allies’ FT-17 tanks built by Renault, find inspiration for a new watch. The idea for the Tank was born. This was by no means a provocation. Far from it. Louis Cartier’s design was an elegant tribute to the courage of General John Pershing, commander of the American Expeditionary Forces, established in 1917 to help restore peace to Europe and whose equipment included armoured tanks.
Hovering between a rectangle and a square, the shape of the Tank watch appears to be guided by the Golden Ratio. Its design observes four main principles which can be seen in all Cartier creations: purity of line, precision of form, balance of proportions and precious details. It broke with tradition and became one of the first wristwatches in the history of modern timekeeping.
Louis Cartier, who had already taken his contemporaries by surprise in 1904 with the Santos he created for his friend and aviation pioneer Alberto Santos-Dumont, laid the foundations for a truly inimitable timepiece. The two brancards that flank the Tank’s case, reminiscent of its namesake’s treads, visually elongate the rectangle’s sides, while the dial echoes the hull. A simple form, yet powerful enough to be considered avant-garde. This was Modern Style as it was then known, soon to be renamed Art Deco. Seen from above, Louis Cartier’s watch looked every inch like an armoured tank. And so Tank it became.
Louis Cartier would take his idea to its logical conclusion when a hand-built prototype of this unusual rectangular watch was presented to General Pershing. Little did the American know that the watch he received that day would become a global icon, adored by women and men alike. A watch whose DNA remains intact more than a century after its creation.
Roman numerals around a railway minute track, blued steel hands, a sapphire cabochon set in the winding crown - first imagined by Louis Cartier in late 1916 and completed in 1917, it wouldn’t be until 1919 that the first Tank watches went on sale.
Between November 15 and December 26, 1919, six were added to Cartier’s inventory. By January 17 the following year, every one of them had sold. The Tank de Cartier was instantly desirable and understandably so, for who could resist such a special watch. The Tank has caught the eye of crowned heads and couturiers, actors and artists: Lady Diana, Yves Saint Laurent, Andy Warhol, Catherine Deneuve, Alain Delon, Kanye West, Brad Pitt, Paul Mescal and Austin Butler are among the Tank’s famous fans.
A creative mainstay, the Tank has evolved into a complete collection, taking on multiple guises as the Tank Chinoise (1921), Cintrée (1921), Louis Cartier (1922), À Guichets (1928), Basculante (1932), Asymétrique (1936), Rectangle (1952), Allongée (1960), Must (1970), Américaine (1989), Française (1996), Divan (2002) and more.
