Cartier Tank Française 1840 Automatic Watch with Roman Dial in 18k Yellow Gold

A Cartier Tank Française in 18k yellow gold, the large model: a 28 by 32 millimetre case with the brancards running straight down into an integrated 18k yellow gold link bracelet with a hidden deployant clasp. The silvered dial is finished in guilloché under black Roman numerals, with blued steel sword hands, a sweep seconds hand and a date window at three; the winding crown is set with a blue cabochon. Automatic movement. The caseback is engraved Automatic, Water Resistant, 1840, 750 and the serial number. It comes in its red Cartier presentation box. 143.40 grams of 18k gold.

The Tank is the one watch people recognise across a room without reading a logo — the rectangle, the Roman dial, the blue crown have meant the same thing since the first one in 1917 — and the Française is the version built as a single piece of gold, case and bracelet drawn in one line. In solid 18k at a hundred and forty-three grams it has the weight that steel versions only imitate, and the automatic movement means it is wound by wearing it. One watch for every occasion the rest of your life — isn’t that the version worth owning?