Introducing Cartier’s New, and Affordable, Quartz Tanks

Cartier did something interesting this year at Watches & Wonders by making a concerted effort to democratise the Tank, which is arguably their single most iconic design. It’s a truly great looking template for a watch, comes in a variety of sizes, looks great on men and women, and is a true bit of watch culture and history. As the story goes, the Tank was created by Louis Cartier in 1917, with case lines inspired by the Renault FT-17 tanks used in the first World War. The rectangular shape of the watch was out of step with circular case designs of the time period, and both the tank itself and the watch it inspired were seen as highly modern designs at the time. Over the course of the watch’s one hundred year history, it’s come to define a certain type of elegance, which is certainly more than can be said for the FT-17, important to the war effort though it was. 

Cartier introduced two new affordable lines of the Tank watch this month, with one seeming to look forward, and another taking a glance back at a peculiar time in Cartier’s history. I’ve already written a bit about the SolarBeat Tank Must in our Watches & Wonders roundup coverage, but needless to say, this is the Tank that seems to be looking toward Cartier’s future. From the outside, it has the appearance of any other Tank (one of the charms of this watch is that like other icons such as the Speedmaster and the Submariner, it simply hasn’t changed much over the years), but inside the watch runs on a solar powered quartz movement that is designed to be worry free for the owner for well over a decade of use. In stainless steel, with a Roman numeral dial, this is about as traditional (aesthetically) as it gets for a non precious metal Tank, but priced starting at $2,480 (for the small version) it presents an easy entry point into what is undeniably one of the key historic watchmakers. 

The other Tank that sits squarely in the affordable category is the new Tank Must, sans the SolarBeat movement. Still powered by quartz calibers, these colorful Tanks are based on Cartier’s 1980s output, when the brand introduced affordable quartz watches to their catalog for the first time, in a bid to stay relevant during a period of decline in the traditional Swiss watchmaking industry. The Musts of the 80s were often cased in vermeil, which is sterling silver with a gold cap. The materials and the movements allowed for an aggressive sub $1,000 price point for the Must line, and while these watches have historically not been highly sought after by collectors (although there’s some evidence that seems to be changing), they represent a unique period of transition for the brand, and certainly are noteworthy for providing a bridge to the modern Cartier we know today. 

It’s a little ironic that Cartier has reintroduced the Must in the same year that Tudor was the talk of Watches & Wonders with their silver cased Black Bay Fifty-Eight. When people talk about the pitfalls of a silver watch, it’s often vermeil watches that they have in mind. Photos of tarnished Musts from the 80s abound on the internet and certain corners of Instagram, and while I think a case can be made that a modern enthusiast might actually have a preference for cases that show some wear and history (and could explain why these old Musts might be on the upswing), there’s generation of silver skepticism at play here as well. 

In any event, the new Must feels like a watch that’s targeted squarely to a younger consumer, and can be had in burgundy, blue, and green lacquered dials with matching straps. The price point is just under $3,000. While that is certainly a lot of money for a quartz watch in 2021, if you compare the Tank Must to the entry level watches of other similarly historic brands (the household names, like Rolex, Omega, and so forth) the new colorful Tanks seem like they’re priced rather fairly. Unlike the Musts of the 80s, the stainless steel cases used here should hold up over time without any unwanted (or wanted) patina, but if Tudor’s big release this year happens to be the start of a trend, one wonders if Cartier could get back into the vermeil game at some point in the future. That would be a truly unexpected turn of events in the long history of Cartier. Cartier