Head turner or head tilter? One of Cartier’s most elusive designs has received a tantalizing update.

The Tank Asymétrique—or Tank Parallélogramme, Oblique or Losange as it was known during its early days—came out in 1936 as a driver’s watch. Due to its parallelogram shaped case and slanted dial, the Asymétrique would be oriented upright when one would have their hands on a steering wheel.

The Tank Asymétrique is one of the rarest of Cartier creations with very few of the original Asymétrique known to exist. The Asymétrique was revived in the mid-1990s. Since then, the Asymétrique has seen a handful of releases, each time in very small production runs.

This exquisite Tank Asymétrique is from the original 1996 Collection Privée release. This historically important re-edition consisted of 400 watches: 300 in 18K yellow gold and another 100 in platinum.

The 18K yellow gold case on this piece features a parallelogram shape with a bold three lug construction to accommodate the torsion effect caused by the skewed case. Unlike the rather large size of modern executions of the Asymétrique, this version measures a classic 23 x 33 mm.

To maintain legibility, the slanted dial features Bauhaus-inspired Arabic numerals with Cartier’s iconic blued sword style hands. As with all of the Collection Privée watches, the dial is made of 18K gold, covered with a layer that contains fine guilloché engraving.

This rare and creative Asymétrique is in excellent condition and is powered by a hand wound movement. The watch comes on a black alligator leather Cartier strap with an 18K yellow gold deployant clasp.