Today (April 1, local time in Switzerland), the world’s most influential watch fair, Watches and Wonders, opens in Geneva. This year, a whopping 60 brands will participate, which is expected to be the largest ever. Let’s first take a look at the major new products of Cartier, a staple of Palexpo and the headliner that receives the most passionate spotlight from the past SIHH (Savoie Internationale de Haute Horlogerie) to the current Watches and Wonders format. At this Watches and Wonders, Cartier attracted even more attention by announcing the lifting of the embargo before anyone else, at midnight before the opening. This is a part where you can see the maison’s great pride in its new products.
This year, Cartier is emphasizing the ‘Art of Metamorphosis’, following last year’s theme of ‘Magic’, and is telling the Maison’s watchmaking journey with wonderful storytelling. It is a reinterpretation of the Maison’s most important signature creation, the legacy of ‘The Watchmaker of Shapes’, in a contemporary way, while recalling the unique know-how of Cartier’s artisans who transform various stones and metals into noble objects, just like magicians or alchemists. The first surprising result was unveiled in 2025. If you are a Cartier watch lover, you may have expected it, but yes, that’s right. Looking back on the long history of the Tank collection that spans over 100 years, the Tank à Guichets, a cult watch with the most unique and distinctive presence, is finally back!
Each year, Cartier rediscovers and presents legendary heritage timepieces through its Cartier Privé collection, which continues the tradition of its Collection Privée Cartier Paris (CPCP) of the past. Following Crash (2017), Tank Cintrée (2018), Tonneau (2019), Tank Asymétrique (2020), Cloche (2021), Tank Chinoise (2022), Tank Normale (2023), and Tortue (2024), this is the ninth edition that summons up the Tank à Guiche. The current Cartier Privé collection is mostly limited editions, and even regular models are produced in extremely small quantities each year, so they are not popular models that the general public can easily come across in stores. However, Cartier dramatically revives and introduces the most iconic, rare, and valuable models in watchmaking history every year, which creates anticipation among watch lovers and collectors every year about what kind of novelty will be released this year.
Born in 1928, the Tank à Guichet inherited the iconic design of the Tank Normal, the first original tank model designed by Louis Cartier in 1917 and presented to General John J. Pershing, a World War I hero and then Commander-in-Chief of the United States Army – with its integrated lugs in the square case and its characteristic parallel shafts inspired by the overhead view of an actual tank wheel – but went one step further by indicating the time in a digital display, unprecedented in Cartier’s wristwatch collections, thereby establishing it as a truly avant-garde timepiece ahead of its time. As its name suggests, the use of two windows – called Guichet in French – to indicate the hours (jumping hours) and minutes (dragging minutes) on rotating discs was a radical departure from the traditional method of indicating the time with analog hands. By presenting a new way of reading time, we can glimpse the flexibility and free worldview of Cartier watchmaking that is not bound by convention.
A slightly different example, but recently Louis Vuitton presented its first dragging indication watch named Tambour Convergence (>> Go to related Timeforum news). Louis Vuitton, with its short watchmaking tradition, had no experience in making similar types of watches, so they themselves stated that they took inspiration from the Montres à guichet of the past. And Cartier’s Tank à guichet would have been the most obvious reference model. Of course, there are mechanical differences between the Tambour Convergence, which displays both hours and minutes with dragging indications, and the original replica Cartier Tank à guichet, which combined a jumping hour and dragging minute display.
The Tank, an eternal icon of square watches, boasts the richest heritage among all Cartier watch collections with countless design variations, but among them, the Tank a Guiché is one of the watches that is particularly difficult to come by. In the 1930s, a few variations were produced in very small quantities with platinum or gold cases, and it was not until much later, in 1997, that a limited edition of 150 pieces in platinum was released to commemorate Cartier’s 150th anniversary, and in 2005, a limited edition of only 100 pieces in pink gold was released as part of the CPCP line (the current Cartier Privé collection). In the past, the design was varied by changing the case shape or the position of the windows, but the Tank a Guiché, which is being re-released this year for the first time in 20 years, is also largely divided into two branches.
With an hour window at 12 o’clock and a dragging minutes window at 6 o’clock that literally rotates slowly, this model closely resembles the original Tank à Guiche produced by Cartier Paris in 1928. Available in yellow gold, pink gold, and platinum, each version has its own unique color code reflected on the rotating disc and strap.
Another version, on the other hand, displays the hour window at around 10 o’clock instead of 12 o’clock, and the dragging minute in the form of a triple window between 4 and 5 o’clock, forming an angle. This model is the only one with a distinctive display, and it is only available with a platinum case. And it is a limited edition of 200 pieces.
Regardless of the position of the window, the case of all models measures 24.8 x 37.6 mm in diameter and is just 6 mm thick. Common to all four versions is the ultra-thin, in-house manual-winding caliber 9755 MC, which has been completely developed for the new generation of Tank à Guiche replica watches. Please note that there is no separate water resistance.
News about the new Cartier Watches & Wonders Genève watches for 2025 will continue. Please stay tuned.