The Coolest Vintage Organic Cartier Tank Watch Ever Made, And You Probably Didn't Even Know It Existed.!
Article date: October, 2021
There is no denying mid-century design was particularly special for art, cars & furniture but also true for a variety of watch designs. In the late fifties up towards the seventies, it was a period of experimentation with minimalism, asymmetry and new materials which opened the door for the use of wood in timepieces. Cartier also played an important role in this development. The “Revolutionary Seventies” saw an increased interest in bold fashion and design, and the innovative Cartier London & New York workshops collaborated together and released an a-typical Organic Tank model with a hybrid case in wood/metal, with a heavily grained wooden dial with applied raised gold hours markers and Cartier logo. Making this unusual classic Cartier Tank watch look luxurious and beautiful, while at the same time also being a bit
weird for a Cartier!
Hamilton produced their Flight II & Pacer Electric, but also morphed into the Sherwood Automatic collection produced in the late sixties. (all shown above).
A variety of vintage 1960s hybrid timepieces with wood dials, wood cases, inlaid wood straps by Universal Geneve, LIP France, Raketa (Paкéтa) and Swank.
Cut to the early 1970s and wood paneling is all the rage - Bulova introduces an Accutron in 1973, (above) featuring inlaid wood on the bezel and metal bracelet.
The Movado/Zenith releases in the 1970s a model with a wood dial and automatic movement.
Not to be left out, Rolex featured many traditional collections with wooden dials like the Day/Date President and a Cellini featuring burled mahogany wood.
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Rediscovering the forgotten c.1975-76 ''Organic'' Cartier watch collection line, which only produced ''ONE'' weird Cartier Hybrid Tank model in wood & Metal, before it was abruptly discontinued in 1976.
The Cartier Organic Tank Wood, that went under the radar for the last five decades.
Cartier has released some odd watch designs over the years, but their mid seventies Organic Tank Wood which was released during the midst of the Quartz Crisis was maybe their most unprecedented Cartier watch creation ever seen by the brand. Since the introduction of wristwatches, manufacturers have been trying to reinvent and deviate from the traditional shapes and concepts to create something different. Most people associate Cartier with classic design and of course the flagship Cartier Tank with the white Louis dial, but the brand, founded in Paris in 1847, has always enjoyed creating and experimenting with controversial and unusual shapes, but these were usually always in solid precious metal case, with the Cartier signature white Louis dials and blue hands, which is probably why, in the mid 1970s, it came up with one of their most unexpected and strangest creations of the Louis Tank model, ever.
The one 1% percenter
It was during the mid seventies when Cartier issued their historically first Organic Tank creation which was designed in a hybrid wood/metal case and matching wooden dial and a dark brown spinel cabochon crown. Making this unusual classic Cartier watch beautiful while at the same time also being a bit Weird for a Cartier.
Cartier is not very helpful with releasing their records, but facts and study tells us that before the historically important ''1976 Cartier Re-organization'', the London and New York boutique introduced a new watch line to their watch collection which we have nicknamed ''Organic'' for the convenience. This line produced only ''One single'' Cartier Tank model. This was the first time we seen an a-typical Cartier Tank in a hybrid case in metal and wood. They issued this model in two seizes, Medium and Jumbo. The Cartier Organic line existed for only a short period during c.1975-76, before it was abruptly discontinued in 1976 when the last of the three companies were taken over and Cartier became one big organization.
These Organic Tank Wood watches were issued for a short run during c.1975-76, and not many have been produced / sold, collected or have survived, which makes them pretty collectable these days.
Case serial research shows that only approx 3000 pieces of these were made during it short existence, which provides this model with some exclusivity in ownership.
A day and night comparison of the Cartier Hybrid Tank Wood compared to the traditional Louis Cartier Tank design.
The short run 1975-76 Organic line was quickly discontinued in c.1976 when the so called ''Cartier re-organization'' happened. Brief history: In 1972, Robert Hocq, assisted by a group of investors, bought Cartier Paris. In 1974 and 1976, respectively, the group repurchased Cartier London and Cartier New York, thus re-connecting Cartier worldwide.The new president of Cartier, Robert Hocq complete reshuffled Cartier's management and strategies in 1976, and the new marketing team set goal for a new direction.
During the seventies Cartier was also battling a large influx of replica watches of the gold plated Tank models on base metal and other models. As a result, in 1976, Cartier introduced a new line named "Les Must de Cartier". These watches were now vermeil gold plated on sterling silver instead of base metal, and became the new low-priced spin-off line of Cartier which were advertised as the first gold plated Cartier Tank models! This therefore meant that all of the previous low priced gold plated base metal Cartier watch models had to be discontinued to make room for the Le Must line, including the Cartier Hybrid Tank Wood. Its believed that because of this, Cartier had to disregard much of their previous Cartier history of the pre 1976 gold plated base metal watch models.
Lets Talk about the use of the brown crown. Historical fact: Every line in the Cartier Collection has different crown colors. Today Cartier still use these different crown stones and colors to refer to the different case materials and lines in their collection.
But before 1976 and up to the 2000's, it was believed that Cartier only used 3 different crown colors for their crowns. These stones and colors were Blue Sapphire for their precious metals watches and Blue synthetic spinel for their gold plated watches, Red Ruby and red Spinnel was used for their limited edition models , and the white Diamond crowns were used for their factory set diamond watch cases.
Read more detailed information about this Cartier practice further in this article.
But the Cartier ''Organic'' line was set with a dark brown spinel cabochon crown, pointing out that this was a new line in the Cartier collection. The brown color of the crown would probably have referred to the color of the earth. Its believed that this new Cartier line would have designed case designs and dials in Organic materials (if it was not abruptly discontinued in c1976). These would probably have been made from different precious woods and other natural elements . That's how we came up with the nickname ''Organic'' for this Cartier Collection Line
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1970s Quartz Crisis
One of the reason why this mechanical Tank Wood was not a big hit, is because it was released during the midst of the Quartz crisis. Another factor for its discontinuation was because it was not as popular as the Cartier signature Tank model with the solid gold case and white lacquered Louis dial, which was all the rage back in the 60s and 70s, and were flying of the shelves. It has therefore has gone under the radar for the last five decades (like many other current rare watch models which were issued during this quartz crisis and where/are being re-discovered today). The Cartier Tank Organic Wood is 2021 classified as a sleeper. It was only made in approx 3000 pieces and had a gold plate metal and wood case which was very fragile and therefore not many are around anymore, which makes them pretty collectable today .
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The forgotten history of 1970s Cartier Organic line
How do we know that this model was a new Cartier line? I will try to explain.
Cartier is not very helpful with releasing their records.
But historical facts, study and the known Cartier's practices, shows us that this watch was part of a new line in the Cartier collection, before the big reorganization happened in 1976.
Even today just by looking at a Cartier's watch crown color from a distance, you could tell in which category of the Cartier collection you could place the watch. It was believed that before 1976 up to 2000's, Cartier used only three different colors crown for the different lines in their collection. These colors were blue, red and white diamond.
But anno 2021 we have re-discovered a new line that had a brown spinel crown which was previously unknown in the Cartier literature. It is almost unthinkable that almost five decades later nobody has ever pointed this out or mentioned this.
These days we can find many different Cartier watches with various crown colors and materials. But before 1976 we only knew that Cartier used 3 different crown colors, and not 4 if we include the dark brown colored Cartier crown. These colors were blue, red and white diamond.
All these different crown colors and materials had meanings. Before 1976 they used 3 different crown colors in 5 different precious and semi-precious stone types. They used this to refer to the case materials and a certain line in the collection. These 4 stone types were blue Sapphire, red Ruby,white Diamond, blue synthetic Spinel and the red synthetic Spinel.
For example: Pre 1976 the red Ruby crown was only issued for the limited editions watches in precious metals.
After 1976 the red synthetic crown (not ruby) was also used for their limited edition models which were in steel and two tone gold on steel cases. But these watches with a red synthetic spinel had much larger limited edition numbers than the red Ruby set crown watches. Examples of these larger editions are the Cartier santos Ronde Aviator, Cartier Santos Carree Burgundy, etc.
-The white diamond set crowns were exclusively issued for the Cartier watches in precious metal with factory diamonds.
Except post 1976 for the 2004 Tank Solo diamond models and the new 2021 Tank Must De Cartier line. These solo and must watches had a model with steel cases and came with factory diamonds setting, but these 2021 diamond set models were issued with a blue synthetic spinel cabochon instead.
The Cartier signature blue natural sapphire crown was issued for their Tank Louis watches, and all the other models which came in precious metals cases.
- The blue synthetic spinel crown was issued for their 1968-1978 base metal gold plated cases nicknamed the Pre Must (The Cartier Tank Organic Wood was also made in a gold plated base metal case, but I have left this model out because it has a ''brown'' crown and had its own line in the Cartier collection).
The later 1978-2000 Must de Cartier line watches also had a blue synthetic spinel crown, and the Cartier Tank Solo line which was released in 2004 also used a synthetic blue spinel crown, the same is true for the newly 2021 reintroduced Cartier Must line.
Follow link for Part two Reference guide
https://forum.tz-uk.com/showthread.p...89#post5872189
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Originally Posted by abraxas
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