Wow! Look what Cartier has done to the Tank.

Once in a while a watch stops me in my tracks as a result of its breathtaking beauty. This is one of them without a doubt. The Cartier Tank Americaine Tourbillon Volant Watch. It is a Tank, a Cartier Icon. Click here to read more on the Tank.

With mounting financial "butterflies in the stomach" uncertainty in the Luxury Watch Business, Cartier has improved on a much loved classic. The outcome a gem of a watch with its "Tourbillon Volant" or "Flying Tourbillon". A tourbillon is a complication originally created in 1795 by French watchmaker Abraham-Louis Breguetto to counter the effects of gravity on the movement of the watch. Cartier has placed everything that works in a Watch, so that the watches success is its birthright. The dazzling sapphire crystal cabochon accentuates the crown, and the 18k rose gold softens the look. The watch has a mechanically wound 9452MC movement with a flying Tourbillon complication and the Geneva Seal. The Power reserve is 50 hours.

This watch is quite large for a tank: 52mm tall and 36mm wide, but in this case the bigger the better. The heat-blued hands and the Roman Numeral Hour indicators are wonderfully Cartier.