As the Cartier Tank passes its first centenary, we take a look back at the dynamic – and surprising – history of one of the world’s most recognisable watches
By James Dowling

The Cartier Tank is one of the most recognisable watch designs ever made, but what most people do not know is that it is also one of the rarest. In the 50 years since it was introduced on November 25th 1919, until the end of December 1969, less than 6,000 Tanks were ever made and sold by Cartier.
The early years
It is now axiomatic that the design of the watch was influenced by the plan (or top) view of the first Tanks, which were rhomboid shaped with their tracks running all around the body. Much less known is that the development of tanks in WW1 was mostly done by the Royal Navy, after the British Army?s War Office initially turned them down. But the RN proceeded with the idea, under the leadership of Winston Churchill who saw how these new ?Landships? had the potential to challenge the stalemate of the trench warfare in WW1. However it was decided that calling them ?Landships? would make the purpose of the new machines obvious to the hordes of German spies who were assumed to be crawling all over Britain. So the more ambiguous name of Tank was chosen.
A British Mark V-Star tank from WW1
While the silhouette of the Landship may have influenced Louis Cartier, the truth is that as a jeweller he was an artistic soul, living in Paris and the war was not the only thing happeni...