Information

  • Brand: Cartier
  • Made: 1950's
  • Model: Tank
  • Reference: Normale
  • Calibre: 2512-1
  • Movement: Manual winding
  • Material: 18ct yellow gold
  • Features/complications: Cartier deployant buckle
  • Dial: Off-white dial featuring black printed Roman numeral hour indices with inner minute track and sword shaped hands
  • Case dimensions: 20 x 30mm
  • Bracelet/strap: Leather strap
  • Accessories: N/A
  • SKU: 3078

Essay

The Cartier Tank was created in 1917 and was released for general sale two years later. By the early 1920’s the popularity of the Cartier Tank watch was rising, and variations of the watch appeared. This included the Tank Louis Cartier (LC) in 1922. 

It was (and still is) a sophisticated, yet tough, unisex timepiece with a serious celebrity following. Rudolph Valentino insisted that his character, Ahmed, wear the watch in the 1926 film, The Son of the Sheik creating one of the most famous anachronisms in the history of cinema. Former First Lady of the United States Jaqueline Kennedy was also famous for wearing a Tank LC wristwatch made in 1962