Many new to the hobby of watch collecting are unfamiliar with Cartier’s history as a watchmaker and simply dismiss the maison out of hand as a jeweler. But this would be to miss out on a host of compelling models that have had an outsized impact on horology for well over a century. To wit: The Cartier Tortue, a lesser-known watch within the company’s portfolio that proves Cartier’s horological bona fides many times over. By the time Louis Cartier designed the Tank in 1917 during the throes of the First World War, his maison had already released three other notable wristwatches: The Santos-Dumont in 1904, the Tonneau in 1906, and the Tortue in 1912. But while the Santos-Dumont and Tonneau are largely associated with the time-only simplicity more typical of Cartier’s elegant and streamlined designs, the Tortue (from tortue à pattes, or “tortoise on legs”) would quickly sprout proverbial legs and take on sophisticated complications: By 1928, the collection featured both monopusher chronograph and minute repeater complications, and in more recent decades, a host of other versions. In the early years of producing..
