By Alan Flusser
Until five years ago, the sum total of my personal watch collection amounted to three. The first was a turn-of-the-century art nouveau silver pocket watch with a white gold 1930’s chain and Johnny Walker fob, which fastened to a brace button on my trouser waistband. Then there were two Cartier tank-looking watches courtesy of Seiko, one with a brown alligator band and the other with a black alligator band. It was fun when some master of the universe would mistake them for the real deal, while proffering his wrist to boast of his latest conquest, typically some function over-loaded Big Ben costing the equivalent of a small house. I would then quietly quip that my mine topped off at around 100 bucks. So much for reverse snobbery. As for managing my minutes, I seemed to have an internal clock that kept me from veering too far from the appointed hour. My interest in haute wrist décor remained pretty much at bay.
One day my better half and I were strolling around Florence, Italy. Surrounded by every fine Swiss watch maker in the world, we decided to shop for my fantasy wrist watch, whatever that might be. After some preliminary investigation, it become obvious that my eye kept coming to rest on one version of the famous Cartier tank watch or another. Realizing that a purchase in a foreign country came with some significant savings, I decided to splurge and become one with what I felt was the ultimate in iconic wristwatch stylishness, an 18 carat gold Cartier tank watch with a honey brown alligator band. It was amazing how frequently I began gazing in the direction of my left wrist.
Feeling like my watch collecting proclivities had been forever satiated, it was with considerable surprise that in no time at all I began thinking of a more sport-oriented timepiece. After some legwork, once again I found my tastes butted up against those of the market. Even for weekend wear, I still preferred a more elegant presentation of my hand and as popular taste would have it, SUV scaled time-pieces for weekend wear reigned supreme. This results in pretty slim pickings for less hefty ones unless you delve into the vintage market. Destiny intervened sometime afterwards while on vacation in Capri, as I came upon a higher-tech version of my classic Cartier tank watch which seemed a logical answer to my hopes. However, it mandated the encompassing of my wrist in a modern steel bracelet. With Hope promising that my leather-watchband ethos would survive the slippery flux of cold metal, my tradition-bound myopia lifted and I joined the modern wristwatch wearing world.
Today, I pair my metal watch with my cooler toned, street-eclectic ensembles while my gold and honey brown alligator Cartier attends to my older world, tweedy assemblages. Sometimes the gold specimen also pulls double duty as a fine accessory with evening wear. In both cases, their vertically rectangular shaped casings elegantly bookend my wrist while their slim profiles slide easily under my sleeve cuff. Not only is the worry of quickly-fraying fitted shirt cuffs allayed, but their linear, almost aggressively spare design satisfies my need for timeless stylishness in every area of my outfit.
Below, a few images from our recent lookbooks, styled with my gold Tank Louis Cartier.
