Issue link: http://papercitymagazine.uberflip.com/i/1540686
T he sartorial hill I'm willing to die on is my belief that no one has ever looked chic while wearing an Apple Watch. If you show up to a cocktail party at Mirador wearing one, your Carolina Herrera dress is erased. Poof! Just like that. The Apple Watch is entirely too high functioning to be fashionable, and adding a Hermès band doesn't change that. I argue that the horological foil to the Apple Watch, then, is the Cartier Tank. Even though the analog accessory's purpose will never evolve, its status as an icon will outlast us all. For the premiere of his film Frankenstein at the 2025 La Biennale di Venezia, Jacob Elordi crossed Venice's iconic lagoon by speed boat wearing an inky black Bottega Veneta tuxedo and a Cartier Tank Louis watch. At 6'5", the monstrous actor looked every inch a movie star. The ultimate IYKYK, the Tank might borrow Taylor Swift's marketing strategy of saying, "There will be no further explanation. There will just be reputation." I acknowledge the irony of calling a watch timeless, but that's the je ne sais quoi of the Tank. Sure, it tells time — but it doesn't need to tell time. Andy Warhol once said, "I don't wear a Tank watch to tell the time. In fact, I never wind it. I wear a Tank because it's the watch to wear." It's been the watch to wear for more than 100 years. In 1917, during World War I, Louis Cartier created the rectangular design, which was inspired by battlefield tanks. A symbol of understated elegance, the Tank has "since captivated the world's most astute minds," according to Cartier. Those astute minds include everyone from Princess Diana and Michelle Obama to Truman Capote and Tom Ford. In 1963, while she was First Lady, Jackie Kennedy received a Cartier Tank from her brother-in-law, Prince Stanislaw Radziwill. In photos of Jackie throughout the 1970s, the Tank is omnipresent on her wrist. In 2017, an anonymous bidder (later confirmed to be Kim Kardashian) purchased the watch at auction from Christie's for $379,500. What's so striking about the understated watch is that it perpetually attracts such a sweeping range of devotees, from polished dignitaries to eccentric artists, shapewear moguls/aspiring lawyers, and … well, cheeky editors. Surrounded by his coterie of swans that included Babe Paley, Slim Keith, C.Z. Guest, and Lee Radziwill, Capote deeply appreciated beautiful people and beautiful things. A Tank collector, Capote once admonished a writer for wearing an ugly watch to their appointment. He insisted that the journalist take his Tank, reportedly saying, "I beg you, keep it. I have at least seven at home." I once saw Tom Ford (wearing a signature button-up shirt, unbuttoned in his signature way to expose just the right amount of chest hair) dining at Le Bilboquet in Palm Beach. Some pedestrian had the gall to interrupt his pushing-around-of-salad and ask him for a selfie. Without missing a beat, Ford pushed his sunglasses down over his eyes and barked, "Not in a restaurant." An iconic moment of Tom Ford being so completely Tom Ford. When Ford, the arbiter of good taste, chooses to wear a Tank, then, it's the ultimate stamp of approval. Tank wearers, however, don't seek a stamp of approval. They don't seek attention. Attention seeks them. The Tank family ranges from the Tank Must de Cartier, which starts at $3,600, to the Tank Cintrée for $88,000. Although Cartier has continually reinterpreted the Tank throughout the last century, each variation remains faithful to the spirit of the original design, which is defined by its bold Roman numeral dial, sword-shaped blued-steel hands, and a sapphire cabochon surmounted crown. Earlier this year, I visited Cartier in Highland Park Village and said those three little words I'd been dreaming of: "I'll take it." As the sales associate elegantly wrapped my Tank, I could almost picture Tom Ford sitting next to me in the salon, giving a knowing nod of approval. Not that I needed it, of course. COLLECTION PENSKE MEDIA, GETTY IMAGES Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, NYC, November 9,1971, wearing her Cartier Tank Ode to the Cartier Tank Clutch your pearls. I'm about to offend some of you. By Melissa Smrekar 48