Lasting Impression

All spruced up for 2023, Tank Normale is the latest from the Cartier Privé anthology.

- TAN SIOK HOON

Each year, Cartier celebrates a journey of exploration by reissuing its legendary models in numbered limited editions. Binding together the Maison's watchmaking heritage and its knack for honing a contemporary vision, the Cartier Privé collection is one of the most anticipated releases in the horology calendar since being launched in 2017. Cartier Privé inductees share a common qualification: rarity, giving them high approval ratings even from the most hard-to-please and discerning collectors and aesthetes.

At the recent 2023 Watches and Wonders in Geneva, Cartier Privé revealed its 7th opus: the Tank Normale. Unlike some of its more unconventional predecessors: the Crash (2017), Tank Asymétrique (2020) and the Cloche (2021), alongside others like the Tank Cintrée (2018), Tonneau (2019) and Tank Chinoise (2022), one can be forgiven for mistaking this year's Tank Normale as a "normal-looking" watch, no pun intended, but make no mistake about its significance.

The story of the Tank watch goes like this: Louis Cartier created it after the French battle tanks of WWI, inspired by the overhead view of the Renault FT-17, which was the first to employ the innovative rotating turret. Design-wise, the combination of the Tank's brancards, which echo the military vehicle's treads, with the watch case, mirroring the tank's turret or cockpit, established a new principle of graphical rhythm.