Cartier’s iconic tank watch turns 100

French luxury brand, Cartier, is celebrating 100 uninterrupted years of the invincible Tank watch by launching six brand new models that keep the continuity of the original design alive.
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French luxury brand, Cartier, is celebrating 100 uninterrupted years of the invincible Tank watch by launching six brand new models that keep the continuity of the original design alive. These come in steel and leather combined with gold and diamonds.

A design that has remained practically intact for a century, the tenacious Cartier Tank was conceived by Louis Cartier after the Battle of the Somme in 1916 when the public caught its first glimpse of an armoured tank that marked a new era of mechanised warfare. Cartier was so impressed by the tight, rigorous geometry of the Renault combat tanks that he adopted it as his muse for a new line of men’s wristwatches.

Like the formidable tanks rolling across the Western Front, the Tank watch that was launched in 1917 ventured into a terrain no watch had ever been before, stylistically speaking. The no-frills watch was a radical departure from the ornamental styles prevalent in that time and was an exercise in restrain. With its brushed platinum case and elongated polished flanks—simulating the treads of a tank—the Tank was thoroughly modern and streamlined.

The original Tank, rechristened the Tank Normale in 1919, has undergone 35 mutations over its 100 years of life without drastically altering its character.

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