TIME & the City

Cartier brings the Tank Française back into the limelight with an au courant Parisian chic remake.

- IRENE NG

Since its launch in 1996, the Cartier Tank Française has been adorning the wrists of the famous and fashionable—from the late Princess Diana to Meghan Markle, Michelle Obama to Dakota Fanning, Claudia Schiffer to Gisele Bündchen. In fact, I constantly see it worn by women who are not public figures—from an ex-colleague to my elder sister who has had the timepiece since the ’90s—the watch looking perfectly on-point design-wise.

Underlying the success of the Tank Française is indubitably Cartier’s intelligent design with its dual superpowers of withstanding the test of time and possessing the ability to be reinvented. One does not err in acquiring a Cartier watch, any Cartier watch, period. This best-selling Cartier timepiece and member of the Tank family has remained unchanged since it debuted with a unique metal bracelet that merged seamlessly with a slim, curved case. Despite its pleasantly modern and gender-neutral look not waning in popularity for more than 25 years, the French Maison decided the time was ripe to give the Tank Française a revamp in early 2023 with the introduction of a handful of tweaks.