Provocative and audacious, the Tank Cintrée was absolutely ahead of its time.
Blazing an entirely unique path in ergonomic watch design, Louis Cartier used his design prowess to create a timepiece that followed the contours of a wearer’s wrist. Featuring a curved case and crystal, the genius of its design resides in its caseback construction. Seemingly flat to the naked eye, the caseback is built with a movement housing built into the inside, minimizing thickness and allowing its shapely aesthetics and spectacular design to breathe.
Ahhhhh.
Created in three different size variations, the 9 lignes, or known better as the ‘Jumbo,’ is without question the most desirable, with its long rectangular case silhouette exaggerating its curvaceous architecture and dial presentation.
Not only is this Cartier Tank Cintrée of the ‘Jumbo’ variety, it’s a piece-unique produced as a custom order for a client under the maison’s ‘New Special Order’ program from 2022. Housed in a 23mm x 46mm platinum case, this piece features the Tank Cintrée’s signature curved case lines and sapphire crystal, a polished bezel, a red cabochon crown, and an accompanying black alligator leather strap with a platinum Ardillon pin buckle.
While Roman indices are very much a part of the design language, this special piece is fitted with a custom-order ‘scientific’ dial, inspired by another piece unique Cintrée from the 1930s that currently resides in the Cartier Museum. The silver dial features a rectangular sunburst center framed by a dial border with matte finish. Featuring a set of printed Arabic numerals, the quadrant indices are slightly larger and are accompanied by a blued-steel, Breguet handset as well as a central minute track reminiscent of the timekeeping instruments used by mid-century scientists and engineers.
Featuring a caseback with a ‘2022/No.1’ engraving, this one-of-one piece delivers with all of its factory goodies including its complete inner and outer box set, books, Certificate of Origin, and warranty card dated August, 2022.
There aren’t enough adjectives in the English, or French, dictionary to describe how incredibly cool, or incroyablement cool, this piece really is!