To celebrate the centenary of the legendary Tank wristwatch, Cartier is releasing a raft of new pieces to honour its iconic timekeeper.

By James Buttery

In 1917 wristwatches were still in relative infancy, often little more than converted pocket watches with soldered wire lug loops onto which a strap could be secured. But using round cases, as pocket watches had done in centuries past, these early wristwatches would have at least been recognisable. Cartier?s work in popularising wristwatches – which in the opening years of the 20th Century were still viewed as distinctly feminine objects – embodied his fondness for geometric lines, creating something entirely new in the process.
In 1904, when he created a watch for his friend and aviation pioneer Alberto Santos-Dumont after Santos had complained that it was not easy to use his pocket watch while flying. The elegantly softened square case with beveled corners was quite unlike anything else that had come before. Cartier Tank Americaine in steel for the first time
Thirteen years later when Cartier designed the Tank he eschewed the flowing, organic lines of the, by then, unfashionable Art Nouveau style in favour of something far more relevant to the burgeoning Art Deco movement. The Tank was inspired by the Renault tanks being deployed for the first time on the battlefields of the First World War, its flanks – known as brancards – aping the prominent tank tracks.
Cartier?s Tank designs were something e...