Page 41 - PROTAGONIST 114

PROTAGONIST / PERFECT GEOMETRY

A FORM

OF ART

BY STEFANO SALIS
A century of history and many

variations; always a Cartier Tank.

An icon true to its identity,
interpreting the best the Maison’s
aesthetic and technical codes

erhaps it is no coincidence that the designer ing of the decades gracing the wrists of thousands of celebrities
of one of the iconic timepieces of the Twenti- and become a genuine cult item, was born of the terrible might
eth century (those that can be recognised at of a war scenario: the conflicts in the French battlefields during
a glance by people with even the most rudimentary the First World War. We are referring to Louis Cartier and his pro-
Pknowledge of watchmaking techniques or aesthetics) digious Tank, conceived, in fact - legend holds it - while looking
was not a watchmaker, but an extremely refined, innovative and at the first photographs (the French magazine L’Illustration pub-
brave jeweller. Nor is it a coincidence, probably, that the inspira- lished a beautiful and dramatic photo on its cover in December
tion for that object of desire, which was destined to mark the pass- 1916) of the most clamorous invention of the war: the Renault

GETTY IMAGES

Above, Cartier Tank with sapphire cabochon in the crown, Roman numerals, chemin de fer minutes, 1917. Tank was created in 1917, but was
not sold until two years later, in 1919. The first prototype was given as a gift to General Pershing. Adjoining page, the French
actor Yves Montand embraces an ever-splendid Marilyn Monroe, his Tank in the foreground, on the set of the film ‘Let’s make Love’, 1960.

N. 114 / PROTAGONIST 41

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