Watch Paparazzi

Actor Brad Pitt spotted wearing Cartier

Brad Pitt has been spotted wearing one of the more intellectually demanding pieces in the Cartier canon — the Tank à Guichets in rose gold, reference 2817 — a watch that asks you to read time through windows rather than follow hands around a dial.

The à guichets mechanism, French for 'with apertures' or 'with windows,' replaces conventional hands with a jumping-hours display and a minutes retrograde or trailing indication read through rectangular cutouts on the dial. The concept traces directly to a Cartier original from 1928, when the maison experimented with non-standard time display formats at the height of Art Deco. That antique DNA is unmistakable in the ref. 2817: the dial architecture is spare and architectural, the rose gold case retains the Tank's characteristic parallel rails, and the overall effect is one of restrained mechanical drama.

Cartier reissued the design in 2006 as part of the Collection Privée Cartier Paris, a limited series the house ran from 1998 to 2008 to honour its most significant 20th-century references. Each CPCP release was produced in very small numbers, with meticulous hand-finishing and in-house movements that placed them firmly above the standard commercial catalogue. The ref. 2817 was limited to 100 pieces in rose gold, powered by the manually wound Cartier calibre 9981 MC — a movement developed specifically for the jumping-hours complication and cased with the care the CPCP line demanded.

Among collectors, CPCP references occupy a distinct and respected niche. The series ended in 2008, which means no new examples will enter the market, and condition-strong pieces are increasingly difficult to source. The Tank à Guichets is arguably the most idiosyncratic reference in the collection — its unusual time display makes it a conversation piece even among specialists, and the 100-piece rose gold edition is among the rarest iterations produced.

Pitt's affinity for under-the-radar horological choices is well documented, and the ref. 2817 fits that profile precisely: it carries serious provenance, demands some knowledge to appreciate, and rewards a second look. On the grey market, CPCP Tank à Guichets examples in rose gold have been trading in a range that reflects both their rarity and growing collector recognition.