The Tank à Vis draws inspiration from one of the most elusive watches ever made by Cartier: the Tank Étanche.

A company with a history as rich as Cartier’s is bound to be the subject of some mythmaking and exaggeration as well. One of the more fascinating stories is about the Pasha of Marrakech, who commissioned Cartier to build a waterproof watch in the 1930s to be taken along during his daily swims. Supposedly, Cartier created an oversized round watch for him, a model that would be reintroduced in the 1980s as the flashy Pasha de Cartier. It is unlikely that this is accurate, as the tastes of the time were much more in line with classic rectangular watches like the Tank. It is much more likely that the Pasha ordered a Tank Étanche, a unique waterproof version of the classic Tank for this purpose.

The Tank Étanche is one of the rarest models ever made by Cartier. Only one has come up for auction in recent years, when Phillips sold a Tank Étanche in 2019 that was purchased in the 1930s by the American socialite Barbara Hutton. The Tank Étanche subsequently served as inspiration for several Tank à Vis models that were introduced as part of the exclusive and limited 'Collection Priveé Cartier Paris' (CPCP).

The ref. 2553 Tank à Vis from the CPCP line features an exquisite wandering hours complication. This creative way to display the time was first developed in the 1600s by the Campani brothers in a clock for the Pope. The mechanism allows the time to be read of rotating discs as opposed to the traditional hands that circle the dial.

This 2553 dates back to the turn of the century and features a rectangular 18k yellow gold case, measuring 40 x 28 mm. Just like the Tank Étache that inspired it, the Tank à Vis sports an H-shaped bezel with screws in each corner. The real star of the show is the exquisite handmade dial. As with all of the CPCP watches, the dial is made of 18k gold, covered with a layer that contains fine guilloché engraving that emanates from a central rose motif. The curved aperture at the 12 o’clock position displays the smoothly wandering hour disc. The minutes, on the other hand, can be read with the help of the traditional centrally mounted hand. Meanwhile, a secondary aperture at the 6 o’clock position features a date display with a creative vertically stacked orientation. This Cartier is powered by the exquisitely finished ultra-thin cal. 9902MC manual winding movement that is visible through the see-through sapphire caseback.

The watch comes on a brown suede strap with an 18k yellow gold Cartier deployant clasp, was just serviced by Cartier and comes with the corresponding service papers as well as the original papers and the special CPCP box.