The Inner Seam —

Cycling Through the Generations

On ticking to the same beat through well made pieces that are handed down and thus kept in rotation

BY Rosie Dalton

I still remember the first time I opened that box of rouge, accented with gold foil. Inside was housed the finest rectangular design, graphic, with a caviar leather band that encircled the wrist just so. The perfect blend of masculine meets feminine. A Cartier Tank Watch that belonged to my mother and was later passed down to me for a special birthday. 

A precious talisman with a long history that stretches back in time, cycling through the generations while maintaining its core design principles—four lines with two parallel shafts that allow the strap to be seamlessly integrated into the case. Timeless. Proof that well made pieces are not trend-based. They do not date and, instead, have the power to be handed down as heirlooms and thus kept in rotation.

This is a proposition just as sustainable as it is sentimental. A less is more approach, but one that is grounded in storytelling above all. First designed by the Maison’s founder Louis Cartier in 1917, the Tank Watch was inspired by the design of French combat vehicles witnessed on the battlefields of World War One. By the rectangular lines of those Renault FT-17 tanks, as viewed from above. 

According to the Maison, ‘this watch follows one clear graphic principle: the brancards were the treads, the case was the turret. From this combination came a new and fundamental principle: the case attachments are aligned with the strap to maintain the rhythm of the design.’

In this way, the Tank is unequivocally a product of its time, but it is also imbued with a spirit of modernity that has allowed the style to transcend the seasons and captivate the minds of many over the course of the past century.

To walk through Cartier’s Culture of Design Pop Up on Castlereagh Street in Sydney is to walk through the Tank’s impressive archives. Here, in the brand’s former Sydney flagship, Cartier has built an intimate and immersive exhibition space that’s dedicated to the unique stories at the heart of the Maison’s designs. The cult seventies LOVE collection is there and so is the Tank—both a testament to the impressive longevity of Cartier’s collections.  

On a wall that traces the Tank’s history in particular, French actress Catherine Deneuve can be seen sporting the style alongside Andy Warhol. Taking a further deep dive through the archives, I learn that the Tank was also favoured by the likes of Jackie Kennedy and Princess Diana, Clark Gable and Steve McQueen. Genderless. Forever. 

It is this commitment to impeccable quality and enduring design that has allowed my mother’s Tank Watch to remain in such good condition across the decades. Its self-winding mechanism still works like a dream and there is something so comforting about its analogue rhythm. The tiny sapphire set into the crown punctuates the style with an elegant touch of luxury in an otherwise refreshingly practical design. It is a design that does not date and one that I hope will continue to cycle through the generations of our family. 

In an era so often characterised by excess and newness, impermanence and disposability, there is something so refreshing about the pared back minimalism of a perennial style like the Cartier Tank Watch. And in that minimalism lies not only the potential for endless reinvention and personalisation, but also for the creation of new stories to span the ages. 

I can see it in my mind’s eye now, the black and white print of our family matriarch wearing her Tank Watch with blue jeans and a black leather jacket in the 1980s. Can feel that history encoded within each tick of the dial, as if we are now ticking to the same beat. And imagine that very same timepiece, one day in the future, resting upon my son’s wrist—worn in his very own way. The same, but also different. Family heirlooms such as these represent the simple power of buying well and keeping things in rotation, not just for a few seasons but for all time.  

fin.