Cartier

Louis-François Cartier founded the house in Paris in 1847, but his grandson Louis Cartier is the one who made it a watch name. In 1904 Louis built a flat, square wristwatch for his friend Alberto Santos-Dumont, a Brazilian aviator who needed both hands on the controls, and Cartier put the Santos into full production in 1911 with a movement from Jaeger. In 1917 he drew the Tank from the outline of a Renault tank on the Western Front, with side bars standing in for the treads, and only six were made in 1919. The 1920s and 1930s brought the curved Cintrée, the Chinoise, the Tank Louis Cartier, the pivoting Basculante and the slanted Asymétrique. Later moves widened the audience. The 1977 Must de Cartier put the Tank in vermeil, the steel and gold Santos de Cartier launched in 1978 with its screws on show, and the Tank Française arrived in 1996 with a bracelet built into the case. The 2018 Santos added QuickSwitch straps and SmartLink sizing, and the 2021 Tank Must included a SolarBeat quartz model that charges from light. Princess Diana was photographed again and again in a gold Tank Française. Andy Warhol wore his Tank and, by his own account, never bothered to wind it.