Cartier

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Part I: New Tanks including Tank Anglaise

The Tank Anglaise is the third major iteration of the Cartier Tank after the Tank Francaise and Tank Americaine. It is also the largest, with broad case flanks. It is a natural evolution of the Tank, since most of the current Tank models, like the bestselling Tank Francaise, are getting a bit small and feminine by modern standards.

A key element of the new Tank is the crown. It is hidden below a crown protector and unfortunately is a bit too fiddly. It is a sort of a double crown, pull out the thin inner crown with the sapphire cabochon for setting; the outer crown also serves the same function once the inner crown is pulled out.

For now the Tank Anglaise is only available in the three colours of gold with matching bracelets. It is too much metal in the large men’s version, especially since it is currently only available with a bracelet, but as a midsize or ladies watch it looks good. I imagine the future strap versions will work better in the larger sizes. And I’m sure steel models will be released eventually too.

The large model, using the 1904 MC automatic, is 47 mm by 36.2 mm and 9.82 mm thick.

The medium model has an ETA automatic calibre and is 39.2 mm by 29.8 mm.

And the smallest model is quartz and 30.2 mm by 22.7 mm.

Another new Tank is the classic Louis Cartier XL. Previously the Tank Louis Cartier was only available with quartz movements, now it has an ultra-thin Piaget calibre. The case is 40.4 mm by 33 mm and a mere 5.1 mm high, making this Cartier’s slimmest mechanical watch. This is available in white gold or rose gold, with the option of a diamond bezel.

The third new model is the limited edition Tank Folle. In the same vein as the Crash, the Tank Folle is in white gold with a diamond set case. Without diamonds this would actually make a nice masculine counterpart to the Crash. The movement is either a Frederic Piguet or JLC manual wind calibre. It’s limited to 200 pieces.