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The Tank is
a line of watches made by Cartier. It was created by Louis Cartier in 1917, and
inspired by the new Renault tanks which Cartier saw in use on the Western
Front. The prototype watch was presented by Cartier to General John Pershing of
the American Expeditionary Force.
The Tank
was introduced in 1918, and entered full production in 1919, when a total of
six pieces were built. Its lines and proportions are similar to those of tanks
found on First World War battlefields; it is both a square and a rectangle, and
its strap is seamlessly integrated into vertical sidebars called
"brancards". Since its inception, variations of the watch have been
released by Cartier, including the Tank Louis in 1922, the Tank Americaine in
1989, and the Tank Francaise in 1996. The defining features of a tank watch
include its bold Roman numeral dial with a chemin de fer chapter ring,
sword-shaped blued steel hands, and a sapphire cabochon surmounted crown.
The Tank
has become one of the most highly coveted and copied wristwatches of all time,
and has been worn by Jackie Kennedy, Princess Diana, and Yves Saint Laurent,
amongst many others.
Louis-François
Cartier founded Cartier in Paris, France in 1847 when he took over the workshop
of his master, Adolphe Picard. In 1874, Louis-François' son Alfred Cartier took
over the company, but it was Alfred's sons Louis, Pierre and Jacques who established
the brand name worldwide.
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Pierre
Cartier
Louis ran
the Paris branch, moving to the Rue de la Paix in 1899. He was responsible for
some of the company's most celebrated designs, like the mystery clocks (a type
of clock with a transparent dial and so named because its mechanism is hidden),
fashionable wristwatches and exotic orientalist Art Deco designs, including the
colorful "Tutti Frutti" jewels.
In 1904,
the Brazilian pioneer aviator, Alberto Santos-Dumont complained to his friend
Louis Cartier of the unreliability and impracticality of using pocket watches
while flying. Cartier designed a flat wristwatch with a distinctive square
bezel. This watch was favored not only by Santos-Dumont himself but also by
many other customers. The
"Santos" watch was Cartier's first men's wristwatch. In 1907, Cartier
signed a contract with Edmond Jaeger, who agreed to exclusively supply the
movements for Cartier watches. Among the Cartier team was Charles Jacqueau, who
joined Louis Cartier in 1909 for the rest of his life, and Jeanne Toussaint,
who was Director of Fine Jewellery from 1933.
On the
other hand, Pierre Cartier established the New York City branch in 1909, moving
in 1917 to 653 Fifth Avenue, the Neo-Renaissance mansion of Morton Freeman
Plant (son of railroad tycoon Henry B. Plant) and designed by architect C.P.H.
Gilbert. Cartier bought it from the Plants in exchange for $100 in cash and a
double-stranded natural pearl necklace valued at the time at $1 million.[24] By
this time, Cartier had branches in London, New York and St. Petersburg and was
quickly becoming one of the most successful watch companies in the world.
Designed by
Louis Cartier, the Tank watch model was introduced in 1919 with a design
inspired by the newly introduced tanks on the Western Front in World War I. In
the early 1920s, Cartier formed a joint-stock company with Edward Jaeger (of
Jaeger-LeCoultre) to produce movements solely for Cartier. Cartier continued to
use movements from other makers: Vacheron Constantin, Audemars Piguet, Movado
and LeCoultre. It was also during this period that Cartier began adding its own
reference numbers to the watches it sold, usually by stamping a four-digit code
on the underside of a lug. Jacques took charge of the London operation and
eventually moved to the current address at New Bond Street.
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