Cartier
Introducing the Cartier Tank Must
Cartier
Introducing the Cartier Tank Must
To give some context, Vigneron is the man who has guided Cartier to its current success and, even more impressively, has made his maison a true power player amongst the horological heavyweights (Cartier is ranked third after only Rolex and Omega, according to the latest report by Morgan Stanley and LuxeConsult). And as such, the question misses the mark; it fails to recognize what Vigneron has done to guide Cartier to its greatest success in its 117-year history in the timepiece sector. Because Vigneron has understood what it is that we as Cartier lovers want to buy and made precisely those types of watches. As famed Cartier collector and author Nick Foulkes explains, “It is as if Vigneron has the capacity to reach into the public’s collective consciousness and extract from it precisely the watches we desire and make them a reality.”
Says Vigneron in response to the question, “Of course we have new designs, but at Cartier we are fortunate enough to have so many iconic models which are today as relevant as they were when they were created, in many cases, over a century ago. So it is my responsibility to empower each of these icons in succession because these are, first of all, the true equity of Cartier and, second, the designs that collectors would most want to have.”
Like many other brands, Cartier had gotten swept up in the trend for oversized complicated watches a few years ago, but under Vigneron, technical innovation serves the needs of design and elegance at Cartier today. This has always been what Cartier was about and now, it is once again the primary focus. Says Cartier collector Roni Madhvani, “Cartier follows a philosophy that is the inverse of the Bauhaus creed that form should follow function. At Cartier, function must follow form — that is the key to Cartier’s success and the creation of beauty before all else.” Even the charming skeleton versions of the Tank Cintrée, Crash, Asymétrique and now Cloche all serve to create beauty and style while being technically innovative.
Sustainable Luxury
A major change for Cartier and the entire luxury watch industry, and something that Vigneron has pioneered in his typically modest, understated way, is the focus on modern ethics and values. These are deeply encoded in the new Tank Must collection which launches this year.
“What is clear is that we are in a fight for the survival of our planet. For Millennials and Generation Z, the focus on the underlying ethics of any brand has increased significantly. But more than that, we now need to emphasize de-consumption. As an entire race, we need to consume less energy, less food, less clothing and produce far less waste, because it is clear our planet cannot support the old ways of human behavior,” Vigneron explains. “At Cartier, this is extremely important to us. How can you create physical beauty if your underlying ethics do not correspond? At Cartier, we use 95 percent recycled gold. We are committed to reducing consumption and waste in every field that we can.” This commitment motivated Vigneron and Cartier to create the luxury watch industry’s first solar powered timepiece.
Reinventing the Tank Must
The genius, of course, is that there is no better watch family to carry the banner for Cartier’s commitment to ethics than the new Tank Must family, a range of unisex watches that seemed genetically engineered to dominate social media like no other timepiece. Anyone that is a fan of Cartier’s history will, of course, be enamored with Cartier’s Les Must story. After the brand was reunified by Robert Hocq, he tapped a young, brilliant Alain-Dominique Perrin to create Les Must de Cartier. Beginning in 1976, this secondary brand was critical in connecting Cartier to an all-new generation and proliferated the name Cartier around the globe on a far more massive scale than ever before. In other words, Les Must took Cartier from being the King of Jewelers to becoming one of the world’s greatest luxury juggernauts. The Les Must product, which included lighters and pens, also featured a stunning series of Tank watches based on the Tank Louis Cartier. These watches had gilt-silver cases plated in gold, with wonderfully daring dials in red, blue, green and black. They were the perfect Cartier watches for the disco era and became symbols of upward mobility and the irreverent hedonism that characterized that decade.
Why is the Tank Must so perfectly engineered to become social media’s next runaway star? It is instantly identifiable, incredibly eye-catching especially in the red, blue and green dial versions and genuinely unisex in terms of size and design. Starting at SGD3,800 for those gorgeous colored dial watches, it is also extremely accessible in price. It is in this family that you will find the new Tank Must replete with solar powered movement. So, Vigneron first identified a past icon and understood its potential for the modern market, then redesigned the watches to suit the tastes of today’s audience and symbolize the ethics that he believes are critical for the future of the planet.
Another reason for the Tank Must’s potential success is the way it is utterly and completely gender neutral. Says Vigneron, “The recent years have been a period of accelerated change, and we can see that even the way young people want to identify themselves no longer has to do with traditional gender roles. As such, the Tank Must is a watch that was created totally without a gender in mind and is truly a timepiece that looks perfect on any wrist.”
The 2021 Models
From an overarching perspective, the Tank Must is the merger of two of Cartier’s icons, the Tank Solo and the vintage Tank Les Must de Cartier. The objective is very clear: the Tank Must is intended to be the gateway into the brand; a watch that can be purchased and worn by much younger fans based on its appeal and accessibility. But that means it had to be beautiful. Accordingly, Vigneron and The Design Team, as it is called, worked on rounding the edges of the Tank’s famous brancards to make the watch more sensual and appealing. There is also a heightened dynamic tension between the rectangular opening of the dial and this smoother form. It is available on a steel bracelet that can be rapidly interchanged with a black leather strap and, as Cartier’s own images demonstrate, it is a genuinely genderless timepiece looking great on both male and female wrists. The most eye-catching members of the new family are the monochrome colored dials inspired by similar Les Must de Cartier models from the ’80s. These watches can be recognized from across the room and most definitely will explode off the pages of Instagram.
Next up are two gold models named Tank Louis Cartier, both featuring stunning dials of the type seen in Les Must de Cartier watches. There is a nice image of this kind of dial in Franco Cologni’s book The Cartier Tank Watch on page 158. The dials are revisionist Deco, with a delicacy in design yet a vibrant energy thanks to the contrasting hues used. These are manual wind watches with yellow or pink gold cases.
The final comment I have relates to the pricing of the Cartier Tank Must. It has become commonplace in luxury watches that we all relish new releases only to be stopped in our tracks by sticker shock. Vigneron has created the opposite effect. Look at the colored dial Tank Must watches at 3,950 Singapore dollars. They are, to my mind, value propositions, and I think from both an ethical and a commercial perspective, the pricing is a brilliant strategy. Like much of what Vigneron does, it is a demonstration that ethics, capitalism and beauty can all coexist if you lead your brand correctly.
Tech Specs
Cartier Tank Must
Movement: Extra -large model: Mechanical manufacture movement 1847 MC; Quartz movement in large and small model
Case & Dial: Steel case; crown set with a blue synthetic spinel cabochon
Strap: Black grained calf leather strap/ interchangeable steel bracelet
Price:
Leather strap: SGD 3,550 for small model; SGD 3,750 for large model; SGD 5,100 for extra-large model
Steel bracelet: SGD 4,100 for small model, SGD 4,250 for large model and SGD 5,600 for extra-large
Cartier Tank Must (Diamond)
Movement: Large model: Mechanical manufacture movement 1847 MC; Quartz movement in small model
Case & Dial: Steel case set with 42 brilliant cut diamonds in large model and 40 diamonds in small model; crown set with a blue synthetic spinel cabochon
Strap: Black smooth calf leather strap
Price: SGD 8,600 for small model; SGD 9,800 for large model
Cartier Tank Must (Solarbeat Photovoltaic Movement)
Movement: Solarbeat Photovoltaic movement
Case & Dial: Steel case; crown set with a blue synthetic spinel cabochon
Strap: Non-animal straps
Price: SGD 3,550 for small model with black/green strap; SGD 3,750 for large model with black/blue strap
Cartier Tank Must (Coloured Dial)
Movement: Quartz movement
Case & Dial: Steel case; crown set with a blue synthetic spinel cabochon; dials in red/blue/green lacquer
Strap: Burgundy/blue/green alligator leather strap
Price: SGD 3,950
Tank Louise Cartier
Movement: Manual winding 1917 MC; 38 hours of power reserve
Case & Dial: 18k yellow gold/pink gold case; crown set with a sapphire cabochon; Strap: Burgundy/blue alligator leather strap
Price: SGD 18,800