The Cartier Tank Louis has always been the cornerstone of la Maison since 1917 and has severely evolved since its first models, based on the designs of the early french tanks from the first World War. When the brand grew to a bigger conglomerate in the early 1970’s they quickly released the Louis collection, offering plenty of historically based designs, of course including the Tank Louis, in it’s peak as the “extra plate” with the famous F. Piguet 21 caliber. Towards the new millennium Cartier updated this collection to prepare their models for the soon to be presented Cartier Paris collection privée, they changed the clear white lacquer dials to guilloche finished once. Within this so called “pre cpcp” Tank Louis extra-plates we usually see the reference 96069/65 or later on the 1600. The here seen reference 96068 has only been available for special models, such as stone dials or, such as in this case, special bracelet configurations! That is where this watch really stands out.. we adore and collect the “grain de riz” bracelet, but there’s one famous bracelet, so rarely seen many don’t even know it really existed within the Louis collection, rooted in the historical Tank models of the 1930s and 40s: The “brick” bracelet, reminiscing of real bricks through the brushed and straight small links the bracelet has been made of. This bracelet has only surfaced a handful times in the recent years and is by far the rarest bracelet to be found in this collection. The watch it comes on is in no way less special, the case as well as caseback are in perfect condition with only very light signs of wear and the lightest scratches to it. Looking at the caseback, inner lugs, etc. the watch clearly appears to be unpolished and has super crisp caseback engravings and hallmarks. It’s accompanied by the fullset.