Stuff of Legends

With its latest series of Tanks, super complications and concept watches in tow, Cartier was at the centre of the action when the first Watches & Wonders opened at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre on September 25.

Running for three days, the show featured 13 brands from the Richemont stable, Cartier, being one of the most prominent, with its large, plush booth right smack at the entrance to the hall.

On the first day, the maison hosted a cocktail to launch the latest edition to its Tank line, the Tank MC, with a short film by British director Baillie Walsh, and starring Andy Lau, who would later grace the stage for a Q&A session. The message of Cartier’s Tank MC campaign is something we all can relate to: time will stop for no man, so best make the most out of it. According to Cartier spokesperson, one of the main reasons the brand cast Lau in the film – apart from his superstar status, of course – is that he’s one of those veterans in the industry, and has achieved much as a singer, actor and film producer in the last 30 plus years of his career.

The series of watches most identified with Cartier, the Tank made its debut back in the 1917, and the collection just evolved through time. The series that most closely resembles the first watch is the Tank Louis Cartier. Then there’s the understated Tank Solo. In 1989 came the Tank Americaine, with its slender elongated case, and seven years later, the Tank Francaise with its unique chain-link bracelet.

Last year, the maison presented a whole range of watches under a new shape, and with the crown incorporated into the case design, the Tank Anglaise.

This time, the Tank evolves further with Cartier’s base calibre, the 1904 MC, used in the Calibre de Cartier watches. The Tank MC forms an entirely new collection, with a modern size, at 44x34.3mm, and five different versions all showcasing the automatic with date movement on the sapphire caseback. The steel version comes in white or black dials, while the pink gold version comes in white or chocolate brown dials, and easily distinguished by sub-seconds at 6 o’clock. The fifth model is diamond-encrusted in white gold. As always, the dial work is impressive and the watch fits well on the wrist. It’s not super thin, but it’s not overly large and bulky either.

To make things more interesting, Cartier also offers the Tank MC in a 43.9x39.1mm palladium case with a skeleton movement, the Calibre 9611 (the same one used in the Santos 100), whose bridges also function as the hour indices. The manually wound movement has a power reserve of 72 hours. The Tank MC Skeleton is also offered with a diamond-set case.