Cartier is a brand that’s perhaps best known for the strength of its designs, most of which were first dreamed up by the legendary Louis Cartier in the first half of the last century. One of the French-founded watch and jewellery firm’s more recent design collections is the Cartier Tank Française first launched in 1996, which returns this week with a refined and elevated look.
As a zeitgeist brand of the 1990s, Cartier capitalised on its cultural status with the launch of a new kind of Tank watch that was angular, sporty and presented slightly squared-off proportions. The collection quietly remained over the last few years as Cartier turned its attention to refreshing the Tank Must and Tank Louis Cartier collections, but the Tank Française returns to the fore this year with fewer polished surfaces, replaced with exquisite satin brushing.
Overall, the visual impression adjusts its focus from classical elegance and introduces a touch of masculine everyday wearability, with slightly rounded case flanks, an inset crown and new dials with immaculate sunray finishing. As one of the rare Cartier Tank collections that arrive on a bracelet, the new Tank Française bracelet enjoys the same satin brushing across its centre links, with polished outer links that retain something of the previous generation’s eye-catching sparkle.
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The new collection boasts a total of seven new timepieces, with three in stainless steel in small, medium and large sizes (the large size contains an automatic movement), as well as a quartet of yellow gold references in small and medium sizes that either arrive with or without diamonds. If you missed the memos here and here, yellow gold has well and truly returned to the vogue as the dominance of rose gold continues to wane.
A brand with the cultural clout of Cartier has more than a couple of friends to call when they’re looking to celebrate the launch of a new collection, which sees the likes of Guy Ritchie, Rami Malek and Catherine Deneuve front and centre to mark the occasion. The collection is currently available from Cartier boutiques, with prices starting at $5,250 for the small reference in steel and up to $8,200 for the large automatic version in steel. The large reference in yellow gold with diamonds arrives with an RRP of $46,300.
