Watch & Brew

Cartier

Cartier Tank Must

In the collection

A Must de Cartier Tank in vermeil with a deep red lacquer dial and gold hands, on a burgundy lizard strap.

“Must de Cartier” was the answer to a specific problem: how do you sell a Cartier to someone who cannot buy a gold one? The answer was vermeil — a sterling silver case under a heavy gold plate, twenty microns of it, which the case back states outright: 925 ARGENT · PLAQUE OR G 20 M.

That makes it the honest entry point to the Tank rather than a compromised one. The proportions are the proportions. The blue cabochon in the crown is the same blue cabochon. What you give up is the metal, and the metal was never the point of a Tank.

The burgundy dial is the version worth having. Cartier did these lacquered burgundy and green dials with no numerals at all — just must de Cartier at the top, the double-C below the hands, and SWISS at the foot. Nothing else. In daylight the lacquer has a depth that a printed dial simply does not, and without numerals there is nothing to interrupt it.

Inside is calibre 78-1, hand-wound, seventeen jewels. It is worth saying plainly that a Must Tank is a mechanical watch — plenty of them are quartz, and the manual ones are the better buy.

Specification

Reference
Must de Cartier Tank
Year
Not recorded yet
Case
Vermeil — the back reads 925 ARGENT, PLAQUE OR G 20 M
Dimensions
30 mm case length — more not yet recorded
Movement
Calibre 78-1, manual wind, 17 jewels
Crystal
Mineral glass
Water resistance
None
Dial
Burgundy lacquer, no numerals — "must de Cartier" and the double-C only
Crown
Blue cabochon
Case back
Signed Cartier Paris, with the vermeil hallmarks
Strap
Burgundy lizard on a steel buckle
Close view of the dial — must de Cartier at the top, the interlocking double-C below the hands.
The whole dial: a signature, a monogram, and the word SWISS. No numerals at all.
The watch at a three-quarter angle, showing the polished brancards either side of the dial.
Profile view with the blue cabochon set into the crown, and the case screws visible along the brancard.
The blue cabochon, and the screws that hold the brancards.
The whole watch laid out flat with the burgundy lizard strap and its gold buckle extended.
The case back, signed Cartier Paris with the vermeil hallmarks. The case number is blacked out.
925 ARGENT, PLAQUE OR G 20 M — sterling silver under twenty microns of gold, with the French assay marks beside it. The case number is blacked out on purpose.

Record

  1. Movement recorded as calibre 78-1, manual wind, seventeen jewels. Studio photographs replace the first set of phone shots.