# Reference guide: Vintage 1970s Cartier Tank Wood - 20m plaque wooden Pre Les Must De electroplated gold plated



## benbenny (Jan 24, 2016)

Click here if you are looking for the reference guide for the 1970s Pre-Must Cartier Stepped Tank. Cartier Pre-Must Cartier Stepped Tank.

Click here for the reference guide for the fake 1970s Cartier Catena watch models that do not exist. Fake Cartier Catena watches
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The Coolest Vintage Organic Cartier Tank Ever Made, And You Probably Didn't Even Know It Existed.! 

Cartier Tank Pallisandre De Rio, 
(aka Cartier Tank Wood)

Article date: October, 2021*



There is no denying mid-century design was particularly special for art, cars & furniture but also true for a variety of watch designs. The late fifties up towards the seventies was a period of experimentation with minimalism, asymmetry and new materials, which opened the door for the use of wood in timepieces. Cartier also played an important role in these developments. The “Swinging Seventies” saw an increased interest in bold fashion and design, and the innovative Cartier London & New York workshops collaborated in c1975-76 and designed a funky organic Tank model. This time not in precious metal, but in rare endangered precious wood. It had a hybrid case with Brazilian Rosewood panels / gold plated metal, with a matching Brazilian Rosewood dial and raised numerals, adorned with a _brown_ spinel crown. Making this classic Cartier watch beautiful while at the same time also a bit weird for a Cartier...

Case serial research shows that only less than 3000 pieces of these were produced during it short existence, and not many have survived because of its fragile design. The side panels and dials easily cracked in half depending on the humid climate of the country the watch lived in, which provides this model these days with some exclusivity in ownership.



Hamilton produced their Flight II & Pacer Electric, but also morphed into the Sherwood Automatic collection produced in the late sixties (all shown above)




A variety of vintage 1960s hybrid timepieces with wood dials, wood cases, inlaid wood straps by Universal Geneve, LIP France, Raketa (Paкéтa) and Swank.




Cut to the early 1970s and wood paneling is all the rage - Bulova introduces an Accutron in 1973, (above) featuring inlaid wood on the bezel and metal bracelet.



The Movado/Zenith releases in the 1970s a model with a wood dial and automatic movement.



Not to be left out, Rolex featured many traditional collections with wooden dials like the Day/Date President and a Cellini featuring burled mahogany wood.

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*Re-discovering the forgotten c.1975-76 organic Cartier watch collection, which only produced ''ONE'' Cartier Tank model in precious Brazilian Rosewood, before it was abruptly discontinued in 1976. *





*The ''Cartier Tank Pallisandre De Rio'', that went under the radar for the last five decades. *

Foreword: *Just when you thought you know everything about Cartier Tank... *It was in 2020 when I noticed a weird looking wooden Cartier Tank at a vintage Cartier watch exhibition at Dover Street in Los Angeles, which was curated by Harry Fane, who is one of the world's leading Cartier experts. I never saw one in my 20+ years collecting / trading Cartier watches and became obsessed with it, and my research began to solve the mystery surrounding these a-typical Pre-Must Cartier Tank models. See link Hands-On: Vintage Cartier Watches From Harry Fane Exhibition At Dover Street Market Los Angeles, Now Through February 19th | aBlogtoWatch

Cartier has released some odd watch designs over the years, but their Tank Pallisandre De Rio which was released during the midst of the 1970s Quartz Crisis was maybe their most unprecedented watch creation ever seen by the brand. Since the introduction of wristwatches, manufacturers have been trying to reinvent and deviate from the traditional shapes and concepts to create something different. Most people associate Cartier with classic design and of course their flagship Cartier Tank with the white Louis dial and gold case, but the brand, founded in Paris in 1847, has always enjoyed creating and experimenting with controversial and unusual shapes, but these were usually always in solid precious metal case, with the Cartier signature white lacquered dials and blue hands, which is probably in the mid 1970s, it came up with one of their weirdest creations of the Tank model, ever.

*The one 1% percenter*


It was during the mid seventies when Cartier issued their historically first wooden Tank model in precious wood instead of precious metal. 

Cartier is not very helpful with releasing their records, but facts and study tells us that before the historically important ''1976 Cartier Re-organization'', the separated Cartier mansions of the London and New York boutique introduced a new watch line to their watch collection which we have nicknamed ''Organic'' for the convenience. This line produced only ''One single'' Cartier Tank model. This was the first time we seen a Cartier Tank in a hybrid case in metal and wood. They issued this model in two sizes, Medium and Jumbo. The Cartier Organic line existed for only a short period during c.1975-76, before it was abruptly discontinued in 1976 when the last of the three companies were taken over and Cartier became one big organization as we know it today.

These wooden tank watches were issued for a short run during c.1975-76, and not many have been produced/sold, collected or have survived, which makes them pretty collectable these days.



A day and night comparison of the Cartier Pallisandre De Rio compared to the traditional Louis Cartier Tank design.




The short run 1975-76 Organic line was quickly discontinued in c.1976 when the so called ''Cartier re-organization'' happened. Brief history: In 1972, Robert Hocq, assisted by a group of investors, bought Cartier Paris. In 1974 and 1976, respectively, the group repurchased Cartier London and Cartier New York, thus re-connecting Cartier worldwide.The new president of Cartier, Robert Hocq complete reshuffled Cartier's management and strategies in 1976, and the new marketing team set goal for a new direction.

During the seventies Cartier was also battling a large influx of replica watches of the gold plated Tank models on base metal and other models. As a result, in 1976, Cartier introduced a new line named "Les Must de Cartier". These watches were now vermeil gold plated on sterling silver instead of base metal, and became the new low-priced spin-off line of Cartier which were advertised as the first gold plated Cartier Tank models! This therefore meant that all of the previous low priced gold plated base metal Cartier watch models had to be discontinued to make room for the Le Must line, including the Cartier Pallisandre De Rio. Its believed that because of this, Cartier had to disregard much of their previous Cartier history of the pre 1976 gold plated base metal watch models.



Lets Talk about the use of the brown crown. Historical fact: Every line in the Cartier Collection has different crown colors. Today Cartier still use these different crown stones and colors to refer to the different case materials and lines in their collection.



(I thank the user @Anythingwatches for letting me use the posted picture of the brown crown in better lighting circumstances).

But before 1976 and up to the 2000's, it was believed that Cartier only used 3 different crown colors for their crowns. These stones and colors were Blue Sapphire for their precious metals watches and Blue synthetic spinel for their gold plated watches, Red Ruby and red Spinnel was used for their limited edition models , and the white Diamond crowns were used for their factory set diamond watch cases. *Read more detailed information about this Cartier practice further in this article. *

But the Cartier ''Organic'' line was set with a dark brown spinel cabochon crown, pointing out that this was a new line in the Cartier collection. The brown color of the crown would probably have referred to the color of the earth. Its believed that this new Cartier line would have designed case designs and dials in Organic materials (if it was not abruptly discontinued in c1976). These would probably have been made from different precious woods and other natural elements . That's how we came up with the nickname ''Organic'' for this Cartier Collection Line

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*Quartz Crisis *



One major reason why this mechanical Organic Tank was not a big hit is because it was released during the midst of the Quartz crisis. Another factor for its discontinuation was because it was also not as popular as the Cartier signature Tank model with the solid gold case and white lacquered Louis dial, which was all the rage back in the 60s and 70s, and were flying of the shelves. It has therefore has gone under the radar for the last five decades (like many other current rare watch models which were issued during this quartz crisis and where/are being re-discovered today). The Cartier Tank Organic Wood is in 2021 classified as a sleeper. It was only made in approx 3000 pieces and had a gold plate metal and wood case which was very fragile and therefore not many are around anymore, which makes them pretty collectable today .



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*The forgotten history of 1970s Cartier Organic line *

How do we know that this model was a new Cartier line? I will try to explain.

Cartier is not very helpful with releasing their records.

But historical facts, study and the known Cartier's practices, shows us that this watch was part of a new line in the Cartier collection, before the big reorganization happened in 1976.




Even today just by looking at a Cartier's watch crown color from a distance, you could tell in which category of the Cartier collection you could place the watch. It was believed that before 1976 up to 2000's, Cartier used only three different colors crown for the different lines in their collection. These colors were blue, red and white diamond.

But today we have re-discover a new line that had a brown spinel crown which was previously unknown in the Cartier literature. It is almost unthinkable that almost five decades later anno 2021 nobody has ever pointed this out or mentioned this.



Today we can find many different Cartier watches with various crown type colors and materials. But before 1976 we only knew that Cartier used 3 different crown colors, and not 4 if we include the dark brown colored Cartier crown. These colors were blue, red and white diamond.



(I thank the user @Anythingwatches for letting me use the posted picture of the brown crown in better lighting circumstances).

All these different crown colors and materials had meanings. Before 1976 they used three different crown colors in 5 different precious and semi-precious stone types to refer to the case materials and a certain line in the collection. These 4 stone types were blue Sapphire, red Ruby,white Diamond, blue synthetic Spinel and the red synthetic Spinel.




For example: Pre 1976 the red Ruby crown was only issued for the limited editions watches in precious metals.

After 1976 the red synthetic crown (not ruby) was also used for their limited edition models which were in steel and two tone gold on steel cases. But these watches with a red synthetic spinel had much larger limited edition numbers than the red Ruby set crown watches. Examples of these larger editions are the Cartier santos Ronde Aviator, Cartier Santos Carree Burgundy, etc.





-The white diamond set crowns were exclusively issued for the Cartier watches in precious metal with factory diamonds.

Except post 1976 for the 2004 Tank Solo diamond models and the new 2021 Tank Must De Cartier line which also had a model with steel cases and came with factory diamonds setting, but these 2021 diamond set Must models were issued with a blue synthetic spinel cabochon instead.



- The Cartier signature blue natural sapphire crown was issued for their Tank Louis watches, and all the other models which came in precious metals cases.



- The blue synthetic spinel crown was issued for their 1968-1976 base metal gold plated cases nicknamed the Pre Must (The Cartier Tank Organic Wood was also made in a gold plated base metal case, but I have left this model out because it has a ''brown'' crown and had its own line in the Cartier collection).

The later 1976-2000 Must de Cartier line watches also had a blue synthetic spinel crown, and the Cartier Tank Solo line which was released in 2004 also used a synthetic blue spinel crown, the same is true for the newly 2021 reintroduced Cartier Must line.

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*Reference guide Cartier Pallisandre De Rio*



This model was issued in two size variations, Medium and Jumbo size, and was introduced somewhere around 1975-76. The Medium size measured approx 24x30mm and had the case reference: 20611, and the larger Jumbo size measured approx 25x34mm and had the case reference: 21611. Both references vary slightly in case size, depending in which environment the watch has lived in and how much the aged wood has shrunken or expanded.

Both references were powered with a signed Cartier 17 jewels 2512 ETA movement with the Cartier caliber reference 78-1 , also referred to as the caliber 78-X.

These beautifully timepieces were originally made in the London and New York boutiques, They featured a 20 micron gold plated base metal case (not silver) with brown wooden side panels and a matching brown grained wood dial. These wood dials were the first Cartier dials which we have seen which had applied raised Roman numerals gold markers. It was a time only dial with gold (epee) swords hands



The New York boutique version had a elongated dark brown spinel cabochon crown, with back case markings in the French language.

The London boutique version had a short dark brown spinel cabochon crown, with back case markings in the English language.




click on pictures to enlarge

The New York and London boutique shared the same references for these models. Reference 20611 for the Louis size and 21611 for the Jumbo size, followed by the 2512 reference hinting to the ETA calibre 2512 movement, followed by the serial number of the case.

The New York boutique version had additional references 25730 for the Louis size and 15730 for the Jumbo size.


This is an example of case markings of the New York boutique version.
Serial numbers numbers have been covered.

But basically the London version had three lines of reference number in the back case, and the New York version had four lines of reference numbers inside the back case.

While the exact quantity of the Cartier Pallisandre De Rio is unknown, the run was limited to the 1975-76 and was discontinued in c.1976 when the three separated Cartier boutiques were sold and a formed a single entity. But existing online date references and case serials show that probably only less than 3000 pieces in each size are thought to have been made, which provides these two references with some exclusivity in ownership.

Is your watch serial higher than 3000 than please feel free to contact me with a picture with the serials of your watch case to verify, and I will edit this article accordingly so that we can create a more precise reference guide for the Cartier Pallisandre De Rio.

Hope I could help.​


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## Michael Maddan (Aug 17, 2010)

A really-nice Post, with lots of 'hard-to-find' information...thanks!

And: for those folks interested in all the different woods that are used in consumer goods, there are several sites listing what's out there, and providing sharp, close-ups of the woods. It's possible to buy small pieces of these woods ( it seems they're used in jewelry and such things as knife handles ), and it might be fun for a gifted craftsperson to try her or his hand at making a dial or two...some of the Tropical Hardwoods are absolutely stunning ( and, we certainly should demand, sustainably gathered ) and reasonably priced.

Michael.


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## Mrvintage (Jun 10, 2020)

Informative post. I thought I knew a few things about the Cartier brand, but learned a lot of new things today. Thank you


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## Everythingwatches (Oct 24, 2021)

I own one of these. I didn't know the history about it before. Mines also has a brown crown. Always thought it was dark blue.

Sorry this is my first post. I think I did something wrong with uploading a picture. Should be visible now?


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## thewatchidiot (Oct 5, 2018)

Thanks for this great write up. Really good info!


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## bradhan (Dec 18, 2014)

Everythingwatches said:


> I own one of these. I didn't know the history about it before. Mines also has a brown crown. Always thought it was dark blue.
> 
> Sorry this is my first post. I think I did something wrong with uploading a picture. Should be visible now?


Same here, always thought it was dark blue. I have the shorter crown on mine.


















Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## benbenny (Jan 24, 2016)

Everythingwatches said:


> I own one of these. I didn't know the history about it before. Mines also has a brown crown. Always thought it was dark blue.
> 
> Sorry this is my first post. I think I did something wrong with uploading a picture. Should be visible now?


Thank you for letting me use this picture. This will help me pointing out the differences in detail


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## benbenny (Jan 24, 2016)

Mrvintage said:


> Informative post. I thought I knew a few things about the Cartier brand, but learned a lot of new things today. Thank you


Thank you for your kind words. I'm also still learning new things on Cartier every single day...


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## benbenny (Jan 24, 2016)

bradhan said:


> Same here, always thought it was dark blue. I have the shorter crown on mine.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


That's a lovely looking watch. Nice find!


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## Everythingwatches (Oct 24, 2021)

benbenny said:


> Thank you for letting me use this picture. This will help me pointing out the differences in detail


I seen some cartier tank wood watches for sale and many had a blue crown. I assume this means that the crown is aftermarket?


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## benbenny (Jan 24, 2016)

Everythingwatches said:


> I seen some cartier tank wood watches for sale and many had a blue crown. I assume this means that the crown is aftermarket?


Yes, a blue crown on a Cartier Tank Woody is aftermarket. These were originally issued with brown crowns.


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## Yachtmistress (Dec 13, 2021)

I love informative posts like this. Thanks for sharing!


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## benbenny (Jan 24, 2016)

Yachtmistress said:


> I love informative posts like this. Thanks for sharing!


Happy I could help. Share the knowledge.


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## benbenny (Jan 24, 2016)

Yachtmistress said:


> I love informative posts like this. Thanks for sharing!


Was a pleasure.


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## Mrvintage (Jun 10, 2020)

Sorry for the double post. 

The Cartier reference guide on instagram @Cartier.Codex recently listed that the Cartier Tank Pallisandre De Rio (Tank Wood) is made from precious Brazilian Rosewood which is now a endangered species of flora and fauna and banned by the so-called "CITES" (_Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora)._

Does this mean now that buying or selling this watch is restricted?


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## benbenny (Jan 24, 2016)

Thank you for bringing this to my attention. I knew that this watch was made from Brazilian Rosewood, but I didnt want to make false claims without beeing 100% sure. Now I have conformation and I have accordingly adjusted my article. 

Regarding your question if it's illegal to trade this watch. I don't know, need to have a look into this. I think that trading in items which contain Brazilian Rosewood is permitted as long you have the right papers for it or can proof that they were made pre-ban?? Need to do some investigation into this matter. 

Ps: informative Instagram page. Never seen it before. Is this new?


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