First, a little background on the Cartier Tank. The prototype for the Cartier Tank was designed during the First World War in 1917 by Louis Cartier, with the watch breaking onto the market in 1919. The industrial design was inspired by the horizontal section of the Renault tank. It is traditionally thought that, the prototype was given in 1918 to General John Joseph Pershing who was the commanding officer of the American Expeditionary Force in Europe. Sadly, the prototype has since disappeared, but I hope that one day it will come up at auction (seriously, how cool would that be?).