Transcendent Allure

Men's Folio examines two of Cartier's recent creations and speaks to Pierre Rainero, image, style and heritage director of Cartier about the Maison's ingenious mastery of shapes and objects.

- Asaph Low

Creating icons from everyday shapes and inconspicuous objects is an art form French jeweller Cartier has mastered for over a century. Cartier’s ingenious mastery of design embeds itself in these precious creations, be it the intriguing geometry of a rectangle, the sensuous curves of a pebble or the preciousness of a nail that is contemporary yet timeless. At the heart of the allure is Cartier’s Culture of Design, the sacred design philosophy held up by four pillars — the purity of the line, the accuracy of the shape, the precision of proportions and precious details. Together, these principles reverberate throughout Cartier’s ebb and flow, transcending eras with an irresistible aura.

One of the most inimitable design exponents that have emerged from the Maison’s Culture of Design is Louis Cartier’s 1917 Cartier Tank creation. Despite its perceived quotidian rectangular case, the Cartier Tank demonstrates the purity of line and accuracy of proportions down to a tee. Since then, numerous variants of the Cartier Tank emerged, one being the recently revived Cartier Tank Américaine — heir of the 1921 Cartier Tank Cintrée — first introduced in 1988. The vertical brancards of the French Renault FT-17 tank that served as the Cartier Tank’s design genesis were compacted, rounded and curved to fit the sensual and elegant Cartier Tank Américaine. Where the Cartier Tank Américaine differed from the Cartier Tank Cintrée was its case construction — a flat caseback anchors the former while the latter’s was curved. Even though the tweaks were subtle, the effects of its transformation were exponential, thanks to modern aesthetics and ergonomics.