Collecting the Cartier Tank: A Buyer’s Guide to the Most Important Models

Louis Joseph Cartier, grandson of firm founder Louis-François Cartier, first introduced the Tank watch in 1917. At the time, wristwatches were just becoming popular, as soldiers in World War I began wearing them in the trenches instead of more traditional – and more cumbersome in the field – pocket watches. The Tank wasn’t the first rectangular watch, but it was the first to catch on. The first Tank featured a square dial with elegant Roman numerals housed in a rectangular case with broad, extended sides called brancards that were designed to recall the long treads and sturdy architecture of the French Renault tanks that were scattered across the continent at the time. It was, for the period, a sporty timepiece – and one that immediately found an audience.

As World War I ended, the Tank became a clear and uncontested part of European cultural life. The early Tank watches were found on the wrists of everyone from industrialists to artists and from royals to actors – Rudolph Valentino famously even demanded he be allowed to wear his Cartier Tank on-screen in 1921’s The Sheik, despite it being an anachronism.

That same year, Cartier created the first variation on that original Tank (now called the Tank Normale), elongating the profile and giving the watch a subtle curve. This new watch, the Tank Cintrée, was important because of its immediate collectability and because it served as a proof of concept that Cartier had not just one popular watch on its hands, but an entire archetype on which it could riff and a design language that transcended the world of watches. It has since earned an enduring place in the pantheon of vintage watches.

World War II slowed watch and jewelry production (particularly, in Cartier’s case, due to the Nazi occupation of Paris). But by the late 1940s, the Tank was once again evolving and growing in popularity. It was one of the de facto watches of the Jet Set, appearing on wrists in St. Tropez and Beverly Hills, and first lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis famously wore one during much of her time in the White House. By this time, there were many different flavors of Tanks, from the basic Tank Louis Cartier to the idiosyncratic Tank Asymetrique, and the variety would only grow in the later decades of the 20th century, with models such as the Tank Américaine, the Tank Française and the eventually the Tank MC.

While the last decade of watch collecting has largely been dominated by luxury sport watches with integrated bracelets, such as the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak, Patek Philippe Nautilus and other Gérald Genta-inspired creations, the popularity of the Cartier Tank has never diminished. In fact, Cartier’s star has continued to rise on the secondary market, as the Tank has become an essential part of any serious watch collection. A staple of Cartier’s creativity, the Tank remains a focus for the maison, which continues to experiment with new models and collectors have discovered old, nearly forgotten variants.

It seems that no matter what trends are happening in the wider world of watch collecting, the Tank is always among them.

While the Tank is a relatively approachable watch – simple in design with variations spanning nearly every collectors’ price point – there is seemingly infinite minutiae once you really start digging into more collectable watches. Here are a few things to keep in mind as you hunt for your perfect Tank.

In the first decade of the 20th century, Cartier expanded beyond its original home in Paris, opening outposts in both London and New York City. However, as the business was handed down through the family, these three branches took on lives of their own to the point that they were effectively run as independent businesses for decades despite sharing products and designs.

Upon Pierre Cartier’s death in 1964, the three members of the family running each branch sold them to three different buyers, making the informal independence official. The companies would operate this way until 1979, when a group of investors reunited the three Cartiers into one company again.

The result is that items manufactured by Cartier Paris, Cartier London and Cartier New York can be highly unique. Tanks made by each maison share basic design traits, but with major variations due to special orders, market localizations and even different dial signatures. Paris dials, which were signed with the city’s name at 6 o’clock and were sold in both Paris and London, are especially sought after among collectors who feel they represent the watch’s French pedigree.

Some basic advice: If you’re looking for something a bit more traditional and luxurious, you might explore Cartier Paris watches. Those wanting a more approachable, entry-level watch should seek out Cartier New York. And collectors who want something a bit funkier can look to Cartier London.

None of the three is objectively better or more desirable, but each has their own cult following.

If you’re searching for Tank watches online, you’ll inevitably start seeing Tank Must de Cartier in listings and forum posts. Yes, these are genuine Cartier watches. When the group of investors began buying the different Cartier branches in the 1970s with an eye toward unifying them, they wanted a way to open the brand up to a larger international market and to make the products available to more people. Must de Cartier was their solution – a diffusion brand that would preserve the luxury brand of Cartier while expanding its clientele.

Most importantly for collectors to know, gold-colored Cartier Tank Musts are gold vermeil (sterling silver lightly coated in gold), while a traditional gold Cartier Tank is solid 14k or 18k gold. Many Must de Cartier Tanks have quartz movements, and those with hand-wound movements are less elaborate than their non-Must counterparts, which can often have high-quality movements made by manufactures like Jaeger-LeCoultre and Audemars Piguet. On the flip side, Musts can be quite playful and experimental, often featuring Art Deco dials, bright colors and even complications.

Generally more affordable, the line was revived in recent years by Cartier. Today’s Tank Must de Cartier watches are brightly colored and experimental, but are made to the same standards as any other Cartier watch. While Tank Must watches rarely appear in Sotheby’s auctions, they can often be found on the marketplace.

Looking through auction catalogues and online listings, you’ll notice that the vast majority of vintage Tank watches are yellow gold. That was the most popular watch metal for most of the Tank’s history, and while the 1980s introduced steel Tank watches, two-tone and the like, it’s still the most iconic metal for the Tank.

However, that doesn’t mean collectors don’t love white-gold, platinum and stainless-steel Tanks. Just the opposite is true: so-called white-metal Tanks are some of the most collectable and desirable watches out there. Items like a platinum Tank Cintrée, a white-gold London Tank or stainless-steel Tank à Guichet can fetch huge sums at auction. While white-metal Tank references exist in the most rarified airs, there are plenty of models at the more approachable end of the spectrum.

There are literally hundreds of different types of Tanks, with different shapes, sizes, dials, complications, movements, straps, bracelets and more. There are fantastic books and other resources for those who want to dig deeper, but here are a few types of Tank watches you absolutely need to know if you are going to dip your toe into collecting.

This is the original Cartier Tank. Created in 1917 as a special commission for a client and released as a production watch in 1919, the Tank Normale charted the course which all Tanks still traverse to this day. It has a rectangular case with a square dial and the case’s sides have flat tops and sides, giving it an almost industrial look. The dial features Cartier’s signature Roman numerals, a railroad style minutes track, and blued pomme-style hands, and the crown is finished off with a sapphire cabochon. Even without the Cartier signature at 12 o’clock, this watch is instantly recognizable as the iconic Tank to anyone even passingly familiar with watches.

Cartier continued to produce the Normale for most of the 20th century, most often in yellow gold and with similar case proportions and dial styling, though you can certainly find highly collectable examples in platinum and with unusual dial variants from time to time. In 2023, Cartier revived the Normale as a pair of limited editions in yellow gold and platinum, each available on a strap or with a matching tile-style bracelet. Whether or not the Normale ever finds its way back into the main collection is yet to be seen, but it would certainly be a boon to collectors and those looking for a classic style Tank.

If the Normale is the original Tank, the Louis Cartier is the new standard. It was first released in the early 1920s and offered a different take on the Tank archetype. The rectangular profile was maintained, but the dial expanded from a square to a rectangle, and the hard-edged brancards were softened, with curved sides that give the case an almost river-rock-like smoothness. In most cases, the pomme hands gave way to sword style hands that feel a bit sportier and more contemporary. The changes to the case and dial all work toward the same effect, which is to make the watch feel a bit more streamlined and visually lighter on the wrist.

The Tank Louis Cartier really came into its own in the 1960s and 70s, and it was made in many different metals and with many different dial variants – not to mention the versions with hand-wound movements, quartz movements and even automatic movements (a rarity for the Tank). This is the most accessible way to get into collecting Cartier Tanks, as they were made in relatively large quantities compared to other models, and even a brand new one with a quartz movement gets you that classic Cartier feeling.

In 1922, Cartier introduced an elongated version of the Tank, aptly named the Tank Allongée and featuring a narrower shape with longer brancards stretching across the wrist. Around the same time, Cartier also created the Tank Cintrée, which took this idea an additional step, gently curving the case around the wrist for a more comfortable fit and an even more elegant appearance. This didn’t come without its challenges, as creating precisely printed curved dials with stretched numerals and fitting a flat movement into the curved case both proved difficult. But Cartier figured it out and created one of the most desirable and statement-making Tanks of all time.

Cintrée models from the 1920s-60s often had larger cases than their non-curved counterparts, making them feel a bit more modern to contemporary collectors. Their unique shape and design set them apart from nearly everything else out there. Examples of the Tank Cintrée in white metals, especially if paired with an original bracelet, are about as collectable as Tank watches get, and even the comparatively simple yellow-gold versions with basic dials can be difficult to find in good condition. The Cintrée has been revived a few times by Cartier over the years, and every time the watches sell out instantly.

Jumping ahead in time, Cartier released the Tank Américaine in 1989 as an update to the Tank Cintrée. It kept the curvature of the front brancards, the elongated dial and the stretched numerals and railroad track of the Cintrée, but simplified the construction, with a flat caseback that sat directly against the wrist. The original models featured quartz movements in smaller cases and were marketed mostly to women, with larger mechanical pieces coming a few years later in the early 1990s, including chronograph models (an extreme rarity in the world of Tanks).

But the most popular Américaine models wouldn’t come for another two decades. In 2017, to celebrate the Tank’s 100th anniversary, Cartier released the Tank Américaine in stainless steel for the first time, bringing this classic Tank look and feel to a new audience at a new price point. Available in a few sizes (and since updated multiple times), these took off and got a whole new generation of collectors interested in curved Tank watches. They continue to be popular today, in both steel and gold configurations.

The Cintrée isn’t the only Tank Cartier recently reinvented. In the 1996, Cartier unveiled the Tank Française, a sportier take on the Tank Normale specifically targeted at women. It brought back the square dial and mostly flattened out the brancards (though not entirely), pairing the watch with a geometric bracelet to give the whole package a more jewelry-like feel. It’s the rare case of a watch that feels perfectly in sync with its maker’s history while also being entirely of-the-moment, all to great effect.

While comparatively underappreciated by die-hard watch collectors, the Tank Française made a bigger cultural impact than any Tank since Andy Warhol was photographed wearing various Tank Louis Cartier watches throughout the 1970s and 80s. That’s because Princess Diana frequently wore a solid yellow-gold Tank Française in the aftermath of her divorce – a watch now seen on the wrist of her daughter-in-law Meghan Markle. With the renewed interest in the British royals over the last decade, the Française has seen a boost in fascination too.

While these Tank collections are, broadly speaking, the most important and the most frequently discussed, they barely scratch the surface of what Cartier has created over the last 107 years. As early as the 1920s, Cartier was already experimenting with forms such as the Tank Chinoise, with its overlapping brancards inspired by Chinese temple architecture, and the Tank à Guichet, with its Normale-like case and “digital” style jump-hour display (worn by the likes of Duke Ellington, as well as a cadre of royal clients). This has continued almost uninterrupted, with models like the Tank Basculante (with its flippable case) and the Tank Asymétrique (defined by its namesake asymmetrical design) hailing from those early decades and receiving re-releases and updates to satisfy new generations of collectors over the years.

In more recent years, Cartier has continued experimenting, not resting on its laurels. In 2013, the brand introduced the Tank MC collection, the first with 100% in-house automatic movements, complemented by a sportier, more 21st-century look. And continuing the technical innovation came the Tank SolarBeat in 2021, which utilizes a quartz movement that charges in the sunlight. Fortunately for collectors at all levels of experience and budget, Cartier shows no signs of slowing down, creating Tank watches at a variety of price points and in a dizzying variety of styles.