Cartier, Paris

Cartier, Paris

London retailed

Tank Normale

A rectangular platinum lady’s wristwatch, Circa 1931

Dial: cream dial signed Cartier, stretched radial Roman numerals, blued steel épée hands

Calibre: 8’’’ LeCoultre circular movement signed European Watch and Clock Co. Inc., damascened Côtes de Genève decoration, lever escapement, 19 jewels, bi-metallic compensation balance with timing and poising screws, adjusted to temperature and 2 positions, Breguet hairspring

Movement number: beneath dial 27’456 and 5

Case: platinum rectangular case with polished finish

Case number: outside case back hand stamped 27’456, 28’158, • 5407 •, interior of case back hand stamped 28’158, • 5407 •

Closure: red unsigned leather strap and 18k pink gold deployant buckle

Size: 27.5 mm length x 20 mm width

Accessories: none

Commercially introduced in 1919, the Tank Normale is the original and first Tank wristwatch case design. Inspired by the British Mark I tank which had first appeared at the Battle of the Somme in 1916, Louis Cartier designed the Tank wristwatch in 1917, coincidentally the same year that Cartier opened their flagship U.S. headquarters at 653 Fifth Avenue in New York. At the time of its introduction, the wristwatch was still a relatively novel item and not yet widely adopted by men. However, the perception of the wristwatch as predominantly a jewellery item for ladies was challenged by its indispensability to soldiers in the trenches of the First World War.

While many believed the wristwatch to be a passing fad, Louis Cartier was convinced of the commercial potential of the wristwatch. During the 1910s, the majority of wristwatches remained little more than adaptations of the traditional pocket watch, with circular cases, white enamel dials and simple wire-form lugs from which to strap the watch to the wrist. By contrast, the Tank, like the Santos before it, was designed solely with the wrist in mind. Given the reluctance of men to adopt the wristwatch, it is perhaps less surprising that Louis Cartier should choose the tank as his inspiration, a strong and radical new military machine that looked to the future.

As well as creating a beautiful new wristwatch model, all elements of the Cartier Tank were designed with practicality in mind. The watches used refined, slim and small movement calibres that were designed to Louis Cartier’s specification by Edmond Jaeger and made exclusively by LeCoultre, Switzerland. Rather than enamel, the use of thin silver dials ensured the depth of the slim movements, and thereby the overall slender proportions of the watch, were not compromised. The cabochon sapphire-set winding crown acted as a nod to the heritage of Cartier as first and foremost a jewellery brand. The elongated brancard case sides that turn the Tank from a square to a rectangle also formed defined lugs which accommodated strong, removable, screw-set bars to support the wrist strap.