Cartier Tank Louis Cartier (18k yellow gold, large)

A tank seen from above

Louis Cartier designed the Tank in 1917, while the First World War was still being fought. The design is credited to the new Renault tanks he saw in use on the Western Front, and writers on the watch describe the idea in the same terms: seen from above, the armored vehicle reduced to a body between two treads. On the watch the treads became the brancards, the two parallel side rails that run the length of the case and flow straight into the strap.

That was a break with how wristwatches were made. Most men's wristwatches of the day were round, with thin wire lugs soldered on to hold a strap, and many still thought of the wristwatch as a fragile, feminine thing. The war changed that. Officers needed to coordinate attacks to the minute and bought their own wristwatches, and in December 1917 the British Horological Journal observed that the 'wristlet watch was little used by the sterner sex before the war, but now is seen on the wrist of nearly every man in uniform.'

Accounts of the first years differ. One telling has the prototype presented to General John J. Pershing, commander of the American Expeditionary Force, before the watch went into production. Sources disagree on when the Tank was first sold: 1917 is the design date Cartier itself uses, while other accounts give 1918 for its introduction and 1919 for full production, when six pieces were built.

A jeweler and his watchmaker

Louis Cartier was a jeweler, not a watchmaker. To build the Tank, Cartier relied on the Paris watchmaker Edmond Jaeger, with whom the house had signed a contract in 1907 giving Cartier exclusive use of Jaeger's movements for fifteen years. Those movements were made in Switzerland by LeCoultre, the partnership that later became Jaeger-LeCoultre. The first Tank, now called the Tank Normale, had a 23 by 30 mm platinum case, a hand-wound movement, and a folding buckle designed by Jaeger.

Many of the features that still define the Tank were set on that first watch: Roman numerals, a railway-track minute ring (the chemin de fer), blued-steel hands and a beaded crown capped with a cabochon, usually a sapphire and, on rare pieces, a ruby.

Cartier reworked the design almost immediately. The curved Tank Cintrée followed in 1921 and the Tank Chinoise in 1922. The same year came the Tank Louis Cartier, named for its designer and known to collectors as the Tank LC. It was larger than the Normale, longer and more plainly rectangular, with softer, rounded brancards. It became the version most people picture when they hear the word Tank.

On the wrists of Warhol and the Kennedys

The Tank's list of owners reads like a century of style: Yves Saint Laurent, Catherine Deneuve, Princess Diana, Muhammad Ali, Steve McQueen and, more recently, Timothée Chalamet and Tyler, the Creator. Andy Warhol was often photographed in his Tank Louis Cartier and, by his own account, did not bother to wind it. 'I don't really wear a Tank to tell the time,' he said. 'I wear a Tank because it is the watch to wear.'

No wearer is more closely tied to the watch than Jacqueline Kennedy. On February 23, 1963, her brother-in-law, Prince Stanislaw 'Stas' Radziwill, joined the brief national fad for 50-mile hikes that President Kennedy had encouraged, walking from 2:05 a.m. to 9:35 p.m. in Palm Beach. He gave Jackie a gold Cartier Tank engraved 'Stas to Jackie 23 Feb. 63 2:05 am to 9:35 pm.' She wore it for decades, and it appears in many photographs of her. Jackie painted a picture of the hike for Stas with a matching dedication.

The watch and the painting were unknown to the public until 2017. Carole Radziwill consigned them, and on June 21, 2017, at auction in New York, the watch sold for $379,500 after three minutes of bidding and more than a dozen bids, against an estimate of $60,000 to $120,000. A jewelry historian describes it as a rare petite Tank Louis, its case about 20 by 28 mm, with a pronounced sapphire cabochon in the crown.

The sale complicated a popular story. Carolyn Bessette Kennedy was photographed in the 1990s wearing a gold Tank that was widely believed to have been Jackie's, given to her by John F. Kennedy Jr. The auction showed that Jackie had owned more than one Tank. Bessette also owned a silver Tank from Cartier's lower-priced Les Must line, bought in 1996.

This reference: a bigger Tank Louis that winds itself

Reference WGTA0357 arrived in 2025 as one of two new Tank Louis Cartier Automatic models, in yellow gold (WGTA0357) and rose gold (WGTA0346). At 38.1 by 27.75 mm and 8.18 mm thick, it is the largest current Tank LC. Before it, the biggest model in the line measured 33.7 mm and was 6.6 mm thick, with a hand-wound movement.

The new size made room for an automatic movement. The caliber 1899 MC is a slim self-winding movement made by Cartier and first designed to fit inside the Tank Américaine. It measures 9 by 3.63 mm, beats at 28,800 vibrations per hour and holds about 40 hours of power reserve. Automatic Tank Louis models existed before, among them a rare 1974 'Jumbo' that used a bubble caseback to hide the extra thickness of its movement.

To identify one, look for the yellow gold case with polished brancards and a satin-brushed case and bezel; a flinqué dial stamped with rays that widen toward the edge; black Roman numerals with the Cartier signature hidden in the VII; a railway minute track; blued-steel sword hands; and a beaded gold crown set with a blue sapphire cabochon. The yellow gold model comes on a semi-matte gray alligator strap with a gold pin buckle. Cartier's U.S. page offers it with either the original closure or a single-screw closure. The watch is water resistant to 3 bar.

The Tank Louis has no diamonds or set stones on the case. Its only gem is the cabochon in the crown, and Cartier does not publish that stone's weight.

What it costs

At launch in 2025, the yellow gold and rose gold Tank Louis Cartier Automatic models each listed at $14,900 in the United States. Cartier raised U.S. prices twice in 2025: a May increase that one tracker put at 6.9 percent, and a September round in which watch prices rose nearly 10 percent. By October 2026, Cartier's U.S. site listed WGTA0357 at $17,500, though the page showed it as unavailable to order online. These are asking prices for a new watch, not sales.

The vintage market is a separate world. A dealer quoted in 2024 put vintage Tanks anywhere from under $1,000 for a gold-plated Must de Cartier from the 1980s to hundreds of thousands of dollars for platinum or white gold models, and warned that watches cobbled together from non-original parts are a real risk, especially among Tanks made before the 1970s.

The numbers

Carat weight

Not stated; the only stone is a sapphire cabochon in the crown

Color and clarity

Not applicable (no graded stones)

Origin mine

Not stated by Cartier

Cutter

Not applicable

Metal

18k yellow gold (750/1000)

Case size

38.1 x 27.75 mm, 8.18 mm thick

Movement

Caliber 1899 MC, automatic, 28,800 vph, about 40 hours of power reserve

Timeline

1. 1907

   Cartier signs a contract with Edmond Jaeger giving it exclusive use of his movements for fifteen years.

2. 1917

   Louis Cartier designs the Tank, inspired by Renault tanks on the Western Front.

3. Dec 1917

   The British Horological Journal notes the wristwatch is now on the wrist of nearly every man in uniform.

4. 1918

   The Tank is introduced, by one account; a prototype is said to have been given to General John J. Pershing.

5. 1919

   The Tank enters full production; six pieces are built.

6. 1921

   Cartier introduces the curved Tank Cintrée.

7. 1922

   Cartier introduces the Tank Louis Cartier, a larger, more rectangular Tank named for its designer.

8. Feb 23, 1963

   Stas Radziwill completes a 50-mile hike in Palm Beach and later gives Jacqueline Kennedy a gold Cartier Tank engraved with the date and times.

9. 1974

   A rare automatic Tank Louis Cartier 'Jumbo' appears, with a bubble caseback.

10. 1996

    Carolyn Bessette buys a silver Les Must Tank.

11. Jun 21, 2017

    Jacqueline Kennedy's Cartier Tank sells at auction in New York for $379,500.

12. 2024

    Cartier adds Mini versions of the Tank Louis Cartier and Tank Américaine.

13. 2025

    Cartier introduces the Tank Louis Cartier Automatic in yellow gold (WGTA0357) and rose gold (WGTA0346), each listed at $14,900 in the U.S.

14. Sep 25, 2025

    Cartier raises U.S. prices for a second time in 2025; watch prices rise nearly 10 percent.

15. Oct 2, 2026

    Cartier's U.S. site lists WGTA0357 at $17,500.

The world in 1922

• Jan 11, 1922

  Frederick Banting gives the first successful insulin treatment for diabetes, in Toronto.

• Mar 4, 1922

  The silent horror film Nosferatu premieres in Berlin.

• May 18, 1922

  Diaghilev, Stravinsky, Picasso, Proust and Joyce dine together at the Hotel Majestic in Paris, their only joint meeting.

• May 30, 1922

  The Lincoln Memorial is dedicated in Washington, D.C.

• Oct 1922

  The March on Rome brings Benito Mussolini to power in Italy.

• Nov 4, 1922

  Howard Carter's team finds the entrance to the tomb of Tutankhamun in the Valley of the Kings.

• Nov 14, 1922

  The British Broadcasting Company begins radio service from London.

Price record

This is an asking price, not a sale. It is what a seller wanted on the date shown. Asking prices often sit above what buyers pay, but an ask is not a ceiling: a sale can land on either side of it. It is not a value.

By reference price, Cartier Tank Louis Cartier (18k yellow gold, large) is number 59 of 100 in the jewelry entries of the FLOAT 100. 44 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (48 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• Andy Warhol said he did not wear his Tank to tell the time, and reportedly never wound it.
• Jacqueline Kennedy's Tank is engraved with the start and finish times of a 50-mile hike: 2:05 a.m. to 9:35 p.m.
• The Cartier signature on a Tank Louis dial is hidden inside the Roman numeral VII.
• The Tank's side rails, called brancards, stand for the treads of a First World War tank.
• Louis Cartier was a jeweler, not a watchmaker; the first Tanks ran on movements supplied through Edmond Jaeger and made by LeCoultre.
• By one account, only six Tanks were built in 1919, its first year of full production.
• Jackie Kennedy's Tank sold for more than three times the top of its estimate.