CLASSICS TRANSFORMED

Cartier has added a new timepiece to its Cartier Privé collection: the Tank Normale.

It is interesting to notice how Cartier sees time. They see it as cyclical instead of linear, explaining why the luxury brand is constantly engaged in transformation and reinvention and how Cartier watches make their mark in the present with an eye to the future.

Cartier’s new watch collections reflect this concept very well this year, with timepieces revisited by the maison and transformed through the prism of creativity. A selection of outstanding luxurious items is rethought: the elegant Tank Américaine, new interpretations of the Baignoire, Panthère, Santos de Cartier and the Clash [Un]limited watches. However, the spotlight goes to Tank Normale.

Each year, a rare timepiece enters the Cartier Privé collection, the meeting place for collectors celebrating the brand’s legendary models through watches produced in numbered limited series. Cartier Privé reveals its seventh opus: the Tank Normale. Created in 1917 by Louis Cartier and launched two years later, the Tank is one of the maison’s most remarkable creations.

The new version borrows the proportions and the bevelled sapphire crystal of the original and is available in yellow gold on a brown alligator strap and platinum on a black alligator strap. In addition, this model is supplied on a yellow gold bracelet or a platinum bracelet, with satin and polished finishes evoking the spirit of the 1970s.

Cartier has added a skeleton (when the inner work is exposed) movement to this emblematic model, accompanied by a 24-hour complication, marked by a sun and crescent moon, that is also skeletonised. While the minute hand turns around the dial in one hour, the hour hand goes round in 24 hours instead of 12 hours. As a result, daytime hours appear on the upper part of the dial and night-time hours on the lower part.

A limited edition of 50 numbered watches comes in yellow gold on a brown and green alligator strap with a blue sapphire cabochon on the winding crown and platinum on a burgundy and grey alligator strap with a ruby cabochon.

A version set with brilliant-cut diamonds completes the ensemble in a limited edition of 20 numbered pieces featuring an alligator strap in two shades of blue with a brilliant-cut diamond on the winding crown.