Cartier Tank “Wood” & gold plated - 1977 (full set)

When Cartier breaks free from codes

Description

It's no longer a secret that Maison Cartier's creations are far from conventional. Did you think you had seen everything at Cartier? You will always be surprised. If shaped watches are their specialty, the use of various materials is just as much.

This Tank, a rare piece produced between 1975 and 1976, is considered to precede the Must collection. We find it under the name Tank “Bois” but also as the Cartier Palissandre de Rio Wood or Cartier La Nature .

Except for the shape, this piece moves away from the traditional codes of the Tank. The materials and dial are completely revisited. The wood, which has not been affected by time, interacts with the gold plating and gives a very beautiful contrast to the watch. Echoing this, the crown is adorned with a black cabochon. The dial is also exceptional: on a wooden background there are directly applied golden Roman numerals.

The watch hides a mechanical movement inside manual winding.

To complete it all, this “wooden” Tank is sold with its Cartier gold-plated buckle, its original box and papers. What more?

Why did Françoise choose it?

Françoise loves the Tank and its various variations that have emerged over the years. How can we miss this treasure of history and design? A rare watch, a collectors watch, an exceptional watch for its condition.

It is typical of the eclectic production of the Cartier workshops in New York. You won't come across it often...

History

It was in 1917 that the Tank watch, known as the Tank Normale, appeared; in honor of the heroes of the First World War, its design is inspired by the first assault tanks. Five years later, the Tank Louis Cartier was imagined, a model very similar to the first but whose dial is more elongated and the stretchers are thinner and rounded. Several generations follow one another, retaining the same identity codes while adapting to new watchmaking technologies such as quartz.