The founder of the brand,Louis Cartier, invented the Cartier Tank in 1917. It is the brand’s most iconic model and got its name from the Renault FT-17, a British tank used during the first World War. The watch manages to be both rectangular and square, borrowing lines from its namesake.
By the early 1920’s the Tank’s popularity was rising. It was and still is a sophisticated, yet tough, unisex timepiece with a serious celebrity following.
The Cartier Tank MC is the most masculine version of this timepiece. “MC” stands for “Manufacture Cartier” and refers to the fact that inside the watch is an in-house made caliber 1904 MC automatic movement. Cartier originally released the 1904 MC movement a few years ago in the Cartier Calibre. Cartier also uses various versions of this same movement with slight changes for their chronograph watches, which also exist in both the Calibre and Tank collections. The 1904 MC was designed to be a robust base for a range of in-house made Cartier movements – which is why you might see it show up a lot in “Cartier MC” watches. The dial comes complete with a full scale of Cartier-style Roman numeral hour indicators and thin sword-shaped hands. The Cartier Tank MC watch has a flat caseback, but a curved top which appears to wrap around your wrist.
Whether it is the Cartier Tank MC or the other models, the core of the brand has always been timeless watches like the Cartier Tank!
The good news is that if you are a “watch person” and keen to get one of Cartier’s fine timepieces, you won’t be let down.
Picture Courtesy: ablogtowatch.com, revolution.watch, worldtempus.com
