when Valentino starred in his 1926 box-office hit, The Son of the Sheikh , wearing a perfect fake Cartier Tank UK in practically every scene, it inevitably became the most recognised and desirable watch on the planet. The fact that Valentino died of peritonitis two weeks before the film’s release didn’t harm ticket sales either.
Up there on the big screen in cinemas from Sydney to San Francisco, Valentino wearing a Cartier Tank replica for sale was a product placement coup comparable to James Bond sporting an Omega.
Not that Swiss made copy Cartier paid a penny for the privilege as the Tank was Valentino’s personal possession, which he insisted on wearing—even though it looked plain weird on the wrist of a sheik living in the remote Sahara Desert. Sort of like Indiana Jones fighting the Nazis wearing a Casio G-Shock.
Since then, the luxury replica Cartier Tank has made an appearance on a string of A-list wrists—both men’s and women’s—and remains Cartier’s best-loved model, with countless versions made since it was launched in 1919. Interestingly, however, the perception of the 1:1 fake Cartier Tank has changed dramatically since then. Once considered a masculine model, it’s now the epitome of the elegant, unisex dress watch.
So how did a watch with its origins on the brutal battlefields of the First World War become the must-have super clone watch for everyone from debonair jazz musicians to stylish princesses?
A Watch Borne Of War
Louis Joseph Cartier, one of several family members who ran the world-famous jewellers in the early 20th century, is said to have designed the AAA replica Cartier Tank after seeing an aerial view of a First World War tank on the cover of a magazine and noting the parallel tracks that were longer than the cockpit between them. Translated to the actual watch, these twin tracks are known as ‘brancards’ and are what makes the watch so distinctive.
These were still very early days for the wristwatch—worn predominantly by women and referred to as ‘wristlets’—yet Swiss movement fake Cartier had already achieved an industry milestone in 1906 by launching the Santos. Possibly the first commercially available wristwatch for men, it was designed for the Brazilian aviation pioneer Alberto Santos-Dumont, a friend of Louis Cartier, who needed something he could wear while in control of his latest experimental aircraft.
If a high-flying daredevil like Santos-Dumont could wear a wristwatch, so could any man without feeling his masculinity was being compromised.
Heroes Wear Tanks
The First World War saw large numbers of soldiers wear wristwatches—rather than pocket super clone watches—for the first time, making them even more palatable for the men of the era.
At the end of the war in 1918 high quality fake Cartier even gifted a prototype Tank to General Pershing, commanding officer of the American Expeditionary Forces in Europe. In a way, Pershing was top Swiss copy Cartier’s first international brand ambassador, and having a victorious military hero wear the Tank only added to its masculine allure.
By the time Valentino acquired one, the wristwatch was ubiquitous on men’s wrists and the Cartier Tank replica online UK was especially desirable, especially as rectangular-shaped watches were the dominant style at the time. The great and good of the 1920s and 30s lapped it up, with wearers including French poet Jean Cocteau and American jazz legend Duke Ellington.