Cartier tank stepped,potential buy please help

Hello guys, i am really thinking to buy one of my grail watches,a cartier tank stepped .Finally one pop up and i am really thinking it . I did some research , It is manual wind , a nice oversized tank 28x38, the crown it seems correct , the dial seems correct, band and buckle aftermarket, i dont have movement pictures. One of my concern is that the back of the watch has a shine finish instead of brushed as the online examples,is that a problem ? . It is genuine ?Thank you very much in advance!!

It does look genuine to me.

Thank you much guys for your help !!

They are soo much fun. you just have to put aside the fact these case ar plated. But is a really funny a nice watch, specially in this rare dial execution. The size of the bigger jumbo cristallors is the best 38 mm × 28 mm compared to the smaller sized 24/30 which is a bit too small but actually I thats also the same size as medium tank. two weeks ago I had this jumbo plaque piece with a creme dial on my wrist side by side with a yellow gold Basculante. This was my absolute favorite. Basculante is actually quite underwhelming..

Thank you for your comment !!Yea they are beautiful and can't go wrong with cartier (unfornately they have bad movements), but i am really thinking about this , i had to choose between this tank which it comes naked, and one quarzt santos 29mm neo vintage in stainless steel from 2000s which is complete, Hard choice..

the movements are a big pro actually. they are plain and simple and easy to service. vintage like 70-90s cartier is a lot of fun. And of course collection privet. The timeless elegance Louis Cartier series of the 70s is really, really cool

Thats actually true!! Elegant and simple!!

Nice find!

Value of these Stepped Tanks is in which references you have and if its all original.

First the bad news: The crown is not original to this references and is aftermarket. Yes it is elongated, but its the wrong one and is very skinny pointy. To be honest im not even sure if that is an original Cartier crown at all. The original crowns for this reference should have dots applied which form the grooves, The side grooves on this one crown are not correct and the crown is to skinny and pointy.

But it has a nice dial , is it brown or black?

Is the dial original? They were painted with a lacquer type which has aged over time.
90%+ have all developed tropical & spider dials (age crackling of the paint). If not than its probably a redial.

This is Stepped Tank which came in three different references. You have the reference 15176 with the four screw back case which was made in New York and is the rarest of the series, the other ones had snap back cases. They only made them for a couple of years 1973-76 and only made 2500 examples of the ref: 15716. yours has number 1444 which points that it was made approx somewhere late 1974 early ''75.

Don't worry about the movement. These have the Cartier caliber 78-1 hand wind movement which was based on the ETA 2512. I pay $80 with my watchmaker to get a movement like this serviced. You could also buy a complete 2512 eta movement for around $100 and change the parts over with the Cartier brand and your watch is back and running again.

Read this topic. It tells you all the history and differences of these Stepped Tanks.

https://forum.tz-uk.com/showthread....tier-Tank-Stepped-ref-15716-1543-AKA-jumbo-xl

this is the correct crown for the 15716

https://www.google.com/search?q=car...CA4QBA&biw=1456&bih=1046#imgrc=PARKjrg3CBfHqM

Hello, first of all thank you for your comment it has black dial.It is a fun watch to have because of the case size .I am still consider to buy it.What do you think? Pull the triger?

Don't worry about what others or me think. If it makes you smile than buy it. It is a real head turner and you wont meet that quickly somebody else with the same watch, not like them submariners and speedmasters, no offense 😀.

But I as a collector would wait for a better example which is all original. These elongated spinnel crowns are very hard to get by if you ever want to replace them. But than again. This is the reference 15716 which is the rarer version and they don't pop up that often.

If it comes cheap so that you still have room to outsource a other time period crown, than go for it. The dial and front case look like they are in good condition.

But if the dial has no crackling trough the paint than dont buy it or send it back and wait for a better opportunity I would say. On the reference 15716 the front case also has reference numbers which match the last numbers of the back case. These numbers you can only see by opening the case and see if the numbers are matching. If not than its highly likely that its made up from different parts and watches.

Yeah they are very large and oversized for a vintage Tank! See this video. This guy is wearing it next to his Rolex Submariner. Its almost the same size!

I never show it besides the sub .it is massive ,tank on steroids!!I think it hasn’t cracked dial ,i thought that this ref come with this pointed crown and that was correct.it is replacement?

Yes not many know of the existing of this model because there are not many around and not much info to be found. Its huge!



Yes its replacement. Compare it with the other crowns you see on the internet. It doesn't match. You can also clearly see the difference in this video.

I think that the dial is original and has developed a spider effect. Its really hard to see with the naked eye depending how much is has been exposed to daylight. You will need a min 10x magnifier of higher to see this. But I can see that there is some crackling trough the paint at number 1 marker area. The Cartier brand is also written as it should be. Many aftermarket dials had a gap between the letter R and T. Looks alright to me.

A nice watch and the rare reference 15716 you want to buy.

Hi! I was able to buy one of these NY reference watches and it has the spider/tropical aging on the dial. Will cleaning the dial take away from the value of the watch at all? It has never been opened or serviced per the seller. The ones I see online are all so nice and white! Thanks for your input!

Ahh ok thank you for the input!! 😀

NO don't clean the dial. Your want to find these with off white dials and crackling trough out the paint.

The ones you see with stark white dials are refurbished / repainted which means that the dial is not original anymore and therefore has devalued the watch.

The laquer which cartier used for these dials turns to to a yellowish creme beige color.