As the new year begins and the new Roaring ?20s kicks off in style, this week we?ll take a look at an early 20th-Century-inspired watch model that was surely found on the wrists of many gentleman dandies during that era of 100 years ago: the Cartier Tonneau.

In 2019, Cartier released an updated Tonneau collection at SIHH to much media fanfare, revitalizing the more-than-century-old collection. The first Tonneau watch was developed in 1906, making it one of the earliest wristwatches available for men, released two years after the initial development of the now-famous Cartier Santos, which is often credited as being the first official men’s wristwatch. The collection is best known for its ?tonneau? case (the French word tonneau means “barrel” in English), which is a distinctive shape the watch helped pioneer and which is particularly popular among lovers of luxury watches today. The collection is sometimes confused with the similarly named Tortue collection (released in 1912) which also uses a curvy design and similar dial features but is differentiated by its shorter and thicker case, which many describe as being somewhat less elegant and distinguished as compared to the longer, thinner Tonneau.

Within the updated collection are two skeletonized dual-time models, available in platinum and rose gold, and two time-only models available in the same metals, though it will be the time-only editions we?ll be focusing on today. Each of the models use a 46.3-mm x...