Nearly four decades after the curved Cartier Tank Américaine first reached the market, the Paris watchmaker is giving it two new looks. One removes the dial to expose the movement. The other builds a burgundy gradient across it. Cartier announced the Tank Américaine Skeleton and the Tank Américaine Art Deco this autumn, and both are offered in platinum cases measuring 44.4 by 24.4 millimeters.
The Tank dates to 1917. In its release, Cartier says Louis Cartier described the rectangular shape as the “mother idea” behind the Maison’s watchmaking identity. In 1921 the house rounded that rectangle into the Tank Cintrée, a case that follows the curve of the wrist. The Américaine descends from it. According to Worldtempus, Cartier presented the Américaine in 1988 with the Cintrée’s curvature but wider, thicker proportions. The new models are the latest revision to a design Cartier has been reworking for more than a century.
Cartier Tank Américaine Skeleton turns Roman numerals into bridges
For the first time, according to Cartier, the Tank Américaine carries the manual 1988 MC skeleton movement. Its bridges are sculpted in the shape of Roman numerals, a design Cartier says was patented when the movement was created in 2008. The company describes the movement as appearing “suspended in mid-air,” and says designers and watchmakers in its design studio and Manufacture worked on it in constant dialogue.
The platinum case alternates polished and satin surfaces. The minute markers and the Cartier logo are engraved and filled with black lacquer, and the curved bridges follow the arched lines of the case, per the release. A rose gold version is also offered. Both come with an interchangeable alligator leather strap and are rated to 30 meters of water resistance.
Tank Américaine Art Deco builds its dial in layers
Cartier frames the Art Deco model as a nod to dandyism, which the release defines as refined, distinctive elegance with a keen eye for detail. The satin platinum case surrounds a geometric pattern that Cartier says is influenced by the modernist style of the era. A gradient of burgundy tones pulls the eye to the vanishing point of a vertical grid. The same shade shows up in the alligator strap and in the faceted ruby on the octagonal crown.
The dial takes several steps to make. Cartier says it uses sunray finishing for the lightest elements, opaline for the darkest, and satin for the shades between. Coloring happens in two stages: a first coat of Galva Blakor, a nickel alloy, then a red-tinted lacquer. A grey powder transfer follows, and a final coat of gloss varnish closes the process. Inside is the automatic 1899 MC Manufacture movement, named for the year Cartier moved to 13 rue de la Paix.
The gap between the two watches is clearest in the prices. WatchTime, a German watch magazine, reported 55,000 euros for the Skeleton in either metal and 27,900 euros for the Art Deco, so the open-dial model costs nearly twice as much. Cartier’s release does not say how many pieces it will make or when each reaches boutiques. What it does show is a house still treating a 1988 shape as unfinished work, with one watch revealing its mechanism and the other spending its effort on the surface of the face.
