Cartier Tank: The Watch That Became an Icon

The Cartier Tank is a wristwatch of 1917 with a rectangular case and two straight side pieces, brancards, that run all the way round the dial. The shape is often read as a tank seen from above. Louis Cartier drew it, and it has changed little since.

Facts

A jeweller’s watch

Cartier was founded in 1847 in Paris by Louis-François Cartier, and his grandson Louis Cartier (1875–1942) led the firm into the twentieth century. Already in 1904 the house had made one of the first wristwatches for the aviation pioneer Alberto Santos-Dumont, so that he could see the time without letting go of the controls. The wristwatch was then mainly a woman’s jewel and became a man’s thing only during the First World War, when soldiers needed to read the time quickly. In the first decades of the twentieth century the house made jewellery for royalty all over the world, and its red box became a mark of luxury.

Louis Cartier had an eye for form. He wanted a watch that was rational but elegant, instead of the round shape of the pocket watch. The result was the Tank, drawn in 1917 and seen by the public for the first time in 1919.

The tank and the shape

The name comes from the French Renault FT tanks used in 1918. Cartier is said to have been inspired by the tank’s outline seen from above: the tracks are the sides of the case, the brancards, and the hull the dial. One example was, according to tradition, handed to the American General John Pershing in 1918.

The brancards are what make the Tank unique. They are two straight side pieces of the same width as the case that run from the upper edge to the lower, and the strap attaches straight between them. The form makes the watch simple and austere but never cold, and it gave a new view of what a wristwatch could look like. It fits Art Deco, with its clean geometry, and also Functionalism’s idea that form should follow purpose.

The recognisable details

The dial has Roman numerals and a minute track, a thin rectangle along the edge. The hands are blued steel, shaped like swords. The crown, where the watch is wound, is a polished blue sapphire cabochon, and the strap is usually leather. These four details give instant recognition even at a distance.

There have been many variants. The Tank Cintrée (1921) is curved to the wrist, the Tank Chinoise (1922) has overhanging edges like a Chinese roof, the Tank Louis Cartier (1922) has rounded corners and the Tank Américaine (1989) is long and narrow. The Tank Must was launched in 1977 in a simpler variant. All bear the same family likeness. The variants show how a single idea can be tried in many ways without losing its character: the proportions change, but the brancards and the layout of the dial remain.

Why the watch endures

The Tank has been worn by many famous people, among them Jacqueline Kennedy, Andy Warhol and Princess Diana. Warhol is said to have worn his without winding it, because for him it was a status symbol and not a tool for time. The watch shows how a good form can survive changing fashion. That is why the Tank is often shown in exhibitions about design, and why it is easy to tell from a copy: the proportions should be exact and the details carefully made.

In the 1970s the classic watches were challenged by quartz watches and Japanese competitors. You can read about that development in the guides to Seiko Astron and the quartz crisis, Swatch and Casio F-91W. The Tank stands in contrast to them: a jewel and a classic object, not a mass product.

How to recognise it

Exercise

What are the straight side pieces of the Cartier Tank’s case called?