Cartier Tonneau, Crash, Tank Cintrée Dilemma

Last week was a bit hectic even by my standards. Monday I arrived in London from Kuala Lumpur. Tuesday I flew off to Geneva for the SIHH courtesy of Cartier who show me the new Tonneau watch. It looked so much better than in the photos, especially in rose gold. I think it was the patina on the dial, The Breguet hands and the way the rose gold matched my skin that blew me away. Wednesday it was back in London and I dropped by at the newly refurbished Cartier boutique to try on the new Crash watch. Only one will be produced every month and will be sold only through the London boutique. I was not sure how it would look on my wrist but amazingly, it fitted remarkably well.  Thursday it was the Eurostar to Paris to collect the platinum Tank Cintree which I had ordered a year ago at the SIHH. Most astonishingly on seeing this watch, I had second thoughts and they were not better than my initial thoughts! The platinum Tank Cintree was one of the hits and one of the most sought after watches at last year's SIHH and I had fallen in love with it at first sight. A year later, it failed to make the same impact and Cartier had reserved number 2 for me (even though I had requested for number 16!) I was wondering why my hesitation. Was it due to the lovely watches I had seen at the SIHH like the Tonneau or was it the undeniable charm of the London Crash watch or was it because I found the bezel of the Tank Cintree too shiny and overwhelming?!  There had been a queue of people trying to obtain this watch and yet I seemed unimpressed. I decided to take Nathalie, the charming sales assistant for lunch so that I could think about it further but two hours later, I still did not feel a connection with the Tank Cintree. 



Lovely in rose gold, the Tonneau




The iconic London Crash watch in yellow gold




The platinum Tank Cintree with its unmistakable curve