The Tank is Back: The New Tank Louis Cartier

Brutalism meets horology With Cartier’s latest release.

Sandwiched between two world wars Cartier designed a watch that could survive all of them. It was just six years after the debut of the original Tank Louis Cartier, that Mr Cartier himself took to refining the design further. It’s a striking design, one that would be right at home with the brutalist architecture that would emerge 30 years later, it was quite literally a futuristic design well ahead of it’s time. It might still be ahead of it’s time since it still makes you do a double take. It was a watch that’s there to serve one purpose, tell you the time with no distractions. Since then Cartier has released several versions in limited numbers, in 1997 for their 150th birthday and finally in 2005 when they released a limited series of 100 pieces in Rose Gold.

Two versions were shown at Watches and wonders, paying tribute to the original 1930s models. the one pictured above is the platinum model, limited to a numbered edition of 200 pieces. It’s what we would describe as the landscape layout with the hour placed at where the 10 o’clock would normally be, and a minute aperture at the 4 o’clock, both angled 90 degrees. A second variant in yellow gold has these two elements centered in a more portrait configuration. The platinum models comes with gold-finish discs with burgundy, arabic numerals and finally all tied together with a black alligator leather strap that sets off the platinum silver of the case spectacularly.

The movement is a hand wound 9755 MC movement with jumping hours and dragging minutes, which is how I describe my day to day life. The winding crown is snuggly set into the case at the 12 o’clock, as is tradition.

No watch has earned it’s name more than the Tank, and it stays as striking as the day it was first created almost 100 years ago.