This Tank Louis Dual Time is amongst the rarest CPCP Cartiers made and certainly the rarest of the four main Dual Time models (Tank Cintrée, Tank À Vis, Tonneau, and this Tank Louis). It was made in this white gold (ref. 2917) and pink gold (ref. 2916) for just a small sliver of CPCP production. Neither reference has ever appeared at a major auction house, often years go by between examples surfacing. So uncommon is the CPCP Tank Louis Dual Time that in A Collected Man’s excellent guide to all CPCP from a few years back, it didn’t even receive a mention. Last year, we sold a pink gold example which has led our offering this spectacular 2917 in white gold. It is a Cartier collector's dream in white gold and beautifully preserved, about the most discreet and elegant travel watch which has ever been created.
Instead of using two separated movements with dual crowns, the 2917 maintains the classic Tank Louis silhouette with all functions adjusted through one crown for one calibre. This is thanks to a Piaget ébauche calibre 9901 MC, where the first crown position lets you independently jump the hour hand of the lower dial, whilst the second position adjusts time on both. Decorated in the Cartier workshop, it sports the CPCP 'double C' decoration, with the desirable C-shaped regulator index only appearing on some CPCP.
Other CPCP-wide touches like the rosette guilloché, solid gold dial remain, with Cartier and Paris text split between the upper and lower guilloché. The hands are blued steel. The white gold case measures 29.3x38.3mm, each individually numbered in series. More impressive, the entire case is just under 6mm thin despite the complication, which lends a refined elegance on wrist.
Most estimate the 2916 and 2917 were produced between 2005 and 2008, from the very end of the CPCP years, which ran between 1998 and 2008. This was one of the most significant efforts in Cartier's watchmaking history, a return to classic, mechanical watchmaking with a focus on handcraft. CPCP has seen great interest in the last decade, not just for the philosophy but the often small production. The Tank Louis Dual Time pairs one of the most interesting and surprisingly utilitarian complications with Cartier's most classic case for a remarkably rare swan song to those golden years. It is a fittingly beautiful, elegant, and complicated goodbye to the CPCP years.
