Visual Description
The Ref. 1740 is the large Tank Américaine in 18k yellow gold. Sotheby's and Bulang & Sons measure it at 26.5 × 45 mm; other catalogs give 26 to 27 mm wide and 44 to 46 mm long, and Cambi prints 36.5 × 26.5 mm. Antiquorum describes a curved case with a back secured by eight screws and a crown set with a blue sapphire cabochon.
Catalogs describe the dial as silvered guilloché, white or cream, with black painted radial Roman numerals, the secret Cartier signature in the VII and a date window at 6, under blued steel sword hands and a center seconds hand. The watch comes on a leather strap with an 18k yellow gold Cartier buckle or folding clasp, or on an 18k yellow gold Cartier link bracelet with a double folding clasp.
Reference Significance
The 1740 is the yellow gold automatic of the large Américaine. The Ref. 1741 is the same large automatic in white gold, and the Ref. 1735 is the large yellow gold model with a hand-wound movement and no date. Among the medium automatics, the Ref. 1725 is yellow gold and the Ref. 2490 white gold.
Bachmann & Scher and European Watch Co. have sold large yellow gold automatic Américaines of the same size under the catalog number W2603156. No catalog found prints both numbers on one watch, so how the two relate is open.
Historical Context
Analog/Shift dates the Américaine's introduction to 1989. Dated 1740s run from the late 1990s into the 2010s. Sotheby's dates one circa 1998, offered with its Cartier certificate and instruction manual, and Bachmann & Scher dates one to 2000. Aguttes sold one, dated circa 1999, that the actor Tom Hanks gave with Cartier's support to the Famous Faces charity sale Antiquorum held in New York on 24 February 1999.
Antiquorum, Cambi and Sotheby's date other examples circa 2000, Sotheby's one circa 2005 and Bulang & Sons one to the early 2000s by its serial. Antiquorum dates one circa 2010–2020 and Analog/Shift one to the 2010s.
Catalogs disagree on the movement's label. Sotheby's names the Cal. 120 with 20 jewels, as Cambi names the Cal. 120, while Antiquorum catalogs a Cal. 2000 with 20 jewels; all describe an automatic with a date.
What to Look For
Read the case number and any papers. Catalogs pair the 1740 with case numbers such as CC'108'215, CC727301 and C119873, and a dated certificate shows whether a watch falls within Archiva's scope, which runs through about 2001.
On the dial, look for the secret signature in the VII and a date disc sitting square in the window at 6. A white gold case of this size means the Ref. 1741, and a yellow gold case with no date means the hand-wound Ref. 1735. A buckle, folding clasp or bracelet should be signed Cartier and in yellow gold. Catalogs measure the length differently, as Cambi's 36.5 mm shows, so a shorter figure in a listing is not by itself a different reference.
