Cartier Basculante Mécanique 2390 Exhibition Caseback

Cartier Tank Basculante Jumbo Mècanique in very good original condition, dating to the early 2000's this watch is pure elegance on the wrist with its sublte texture off white dial and black printed roman numerals.

The case is also in excellent condition with only light hairline scatches to the case, but looks seldomly worn.

The reference 2390 is the mechanical version of the Basculante, there was also a quartz version.

This example, it is believed was only produced for the Paris Boutiques bearing a special exhibition caseback showcasing that modified Piguet movement in its full splendour.

A rare, and desirable combination, and one you most likely one see again.

Cartier introduced the Tank in 1917. The design of the Tank was inspired by the Renault FT-17 tanks: Cartier took the look of this tank’s treads and applied it to the lugs, which were integrated via “brancards” into the case itself.

Plenty happened with Cartier and the Tank during the middle part of the twentieth century, and it would be impossible to write an exhaustive history of every Tank variation here.

One important version was the Cartier Tank Basculante or Cabriolet Réversible as it was originally called, in the early 1930s. The watch featured a folding mechanism, which was developed by the same company that developed the folding mechanism of the Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso.

More than 60 years later, in the late 1990s, Cartier decided to propose a reinterpretation of its original Tank Basculante, with the reference 2390.