Cartier Basculante 2390 ‘Mécanique’ with box

Brand history
Cartier was founded in 1847 in Paris, by Louis-François Cartier when he continued with his master’s (Adolphe Picard) workshop by himself. 27 years later, in 1874, the son of Louis-François Cartier (Alfred Cartier) took over the company. The iconic worldwide iconic status of the Cartier brand however weren’t established by the Cartier company directors Louis-François- or later, Alfred Cartier. It were the three sons of Alfred Cartier (Louis-, Pierre- and Jacques Cartier), who made Cartier a world renowned jewellery and watch brand.

Alberto Santos Dumont, a pioneer aviator from Brazil complained to his friend Louis Cartier in 1904, he had trouble reading the time from a pocket watch while flying and testing airplanes. Therefor, Louis Cartier designed a thin wristwatch with a distinctive rectangular design featuring a manual wind movement. Alberto Santos Dumont preferred this watch above many other watches in that era, together with a clientele who followed in his opinion. The watch therefor was named after the ‘first-wearer’, ‘Santos Dumont’. This was Cartier first wristwatch, which still is in production today in many different sizes and variaties. This series of events could be seen as the start of the iconic Cartier identity, as the spirit of this first ‘Santos Dumont’ wristwatch can be seen in many other watches of the brand that followed, such as the Cartier Tank, Cartier Panthère and the Cartier Crash.

Product information
The Tank Basculante is one of the earlier additions to the Tank collection of Cartier, first introduced by Cartier in 1933. This particular model, a highly sought-after manually wound version, dates back to the 90’s and houses a Cartier-modified manual wind movement within its 25 x 38 mm steel case. The case has remained in a very pristine condition: The sharp edges and original bevels have been preserved exquisitely.

The white guilloché dial is decorated with the iconic Cartier black Roman numerals and features Cartier’s signature discreetly hidden within the VII numeral. A blue cabochon sapphire is located at the 12 o’clock position, and is used to rotate the inner case a full 360 degrees, effectively shielding the glass, much like the JLC Reverso.

This iconic and beautifully preserved Cartier comes with an original Cartier box and the original Cartier steel buckle.