Grail watches, from the Cartier Tank Must to the Patek Nautilus

At 6.6 mm from crystal to caseback it sits nearly 4 mm slimmer than the Royal Oak, and it is the only pick that runs on a battery.

Louis Cartier drew the Tank in 1917, and the story Cartier tells is that he took the shape from a Renault tank seen from above: the case is the hull, the long side rails are the tracks. The Must line began in the 1970s as the Tank in materials other than solid gold, and the 2021 relaunch of the Tank Must brought it back in three sizes. The small and large models come with quartz or with SolarBeat, a solar version that hides its cells under the Roman numerals. The extra-large gets the automatic 1847 MC.

The reference our link goes to, WSTA0107, is the small model: 29.5 by 22 mm in steel, on a steel bracelet, with Cartier's high autonomy quartz movement inside. It is the standard quartz, not the SolarBeat. The dial is silvered, the hands are blued steel, and a railway minute track runs inside the numerals, the details every Tank has carried since the first one. The crown is beaded and set with a blue synthetic spinel.

Water resistance is 3 bar. That covers rain and washing your hands and nothing that involves swimming.

A rectangular case wears smaller than its numbers suggest, because the eye reads the width across the wrist. At 22 mm across it slips under a buttoned cuff, which is the job a Tank was drawn for. Cartier also makes a large model on the same drawing, worth trying on beside the small before choosing.

The only watch here you wind by hand, and the only pick with an acrylic crystal instead of sapphire.

The Speedmaster first appeared in 1957 as a racing chronograph. NASA qualified it for crewed spaceflight in 1965, it went to the moon on Apollo 11 in 1969, and Omega has called it the Moonwatch ever since. The current Moonwatch Professional, reference 310.30.42.50.01.001, keeps the flight-qualified recipe: a 42 mm steel case, a black step dial with three counters, a tachymeter bezel and a hesalite crystal.

Hesalite is an acrylic. It marks sooner than sapphire, and a light mark buffs away with polishing paste in a few minutes. It also does not break into splinters, which mattered inside a capsule. The domed shape distorts the edges of the dial slightly when you tilt it, and that distortion is part of what the watch looks like.

Under it, since January 2021, runs calibre 3861: manual winding, a Co-Axial escapement, and 50 hours of reserve, up from the 48 of the movement it replaced. METAS, the Swiss federal metrology institute, certifies it as a Master Chronometer, testing the finished watch for accuracy and for resistance to 15,000 gauss. Water resistance is 50 m.

Winding is a daily habit, a minute at the crown with the coffee. Wear it every day and it never stops. Leave it in a drawer for a weekend and it will be waiting at a stopped time on Monday, which some owners count as the point of it.

The bracelet comes off and the strap goes on without a tool, and the bracelet shortens itself the same way.

Cartier made the first Santos in 1904 for Alberto Santos-Dumont, a Brazilian aviator who needed both hands on the controls and could not reach into a pocket for the time. The eight screws on its square bezel were left in plain sight from the start.

The 2018 relaunch added the two systems that define the current watch. QuickSwitch releases the bracelet or strap with a press on the underside of the case. SmartLink lets you remove or add bracelet links by pressing a button inside each one, so sizing happens at the kitchen table. Reference WSSA0062 comes with both: a steel bracelet and a second strap in green alligator on a steel folding buckle. The catch is that QuickSwitch is Cartier's own fitting, so ordinary aftermarket straps do not fit.

The large case measures 39.8 by 47.5 mm and 9.38 mm thick, in steel, under sapphire. The dial is a graduated green sunray with a date window, and the hands are polished steel swords filled with luminescent material. The movement is Cartier's automatic 1847 MC, with about 40 hours of reserve. Water resistance is 100 m.

A square case sits differently from a round one. The corners line up with the edges of the wrist, so a 39.8 mm Santos looks larger than a 41 mm round watch from across a room and smaller on the arm. Of the six, only the Santos changes character with a strap swap, from a steel sports watch at the weekend to something closer to a dress watch on leather.

Rated to 300 m, the deepest of the six, with a bezel that only turns one way.

The Submariner launched in 1953 as Rolex's first divers' watch, waterproof to 100 m. The current generation arrived in September 2020 at 41 mm, the first Submariner larger than 40 mm, with slimmer lugs and crown guards.

The base model is reference 124060, which has no date. It runs calibre 3230, self-winding, with about 70 hours of reserve, so a watch set down for a whole weekend is still ticking when the week starts. Rolex certifies it as a Superlative Chronometer, tested after casing. The case is Oystersteel, the steel alloy Rolex makes for itself, and the Oyster bracelet closes on an Oysterlock clasp with Glidelock, which extends in small steps without a tool to go over a wetsuit sleeve.

The bezel is the part built for diving. It turns anticlockwise only, so a diver who knocks it under water can only shorten the time remaining on the dive, never lengthen it. The insert is Cerachrom, Rolex's ceramic, which keeps its colour and resists the scratches that faded the aluminium bezels of older Submariners.

The no-date dial is the symmetrical one: nothing interrupts the markers at three, which is how the 1953 watch looked. The same case with a date and a magnifying Cyclops lens is a separate reference, covered in the guide below. Dealers keep waiting lists for both.

The watch that made steel a luxury material, with a dial in the shade of blue it launched in.

Gérald Genta designed the Royal Oak for Audemars Piguet, and it launched in 1972 as the first luxury sports watch in stainless steel, priced above some of the firm's gold watches. Eight hexagonal screws hold down the octagonal bezel, the bracelet runs straight out of the case without lugs, and small square pyramids, which AP calls Grande Tapisserie, cover the dial.

The current Selfwinding 41 mm is reference 15510ST, which replaced the 15500 in 2022. Its dial colour is Bleu Nuit, Nuage 50, the shade of the 1972 original. The steel case measures 41 mm across and 10.5 mm deep, with sapphire front and back. Water resistance is 50 m. Watches made in 2022, the 50th anniversary year, carry a special rotor marked for it; production from early 2023 went back to the standard one, which makes the date on the papers worth checking if you buy secondhand.

Inside is calibre 4302, self-winding at 4 Hz, with 257 parts and a 70-hour power reserve.

The bracelet is most of the experience. Each link is brushed on top and polished on its bevels, and it tapers from the case to the folding clasp, so the watch wears as one piece of steel from end to end. Under any strong light the bevels flash, and the watch looks different from every angle, which is the effect Genta drew it for.

The only watch here in solid gold, case and bracelet both, in a case 8.2 mm thick.

Genta drew the Nautilus four years after the Royal Oak, and Patek Philippe launched it in 1976 with a case shaped like a ship's porthole: a rounded octagon with ears at either side, where the hinges of a porthole would sit. The steel 5711 ran from 2006 until Patek retired it in 2021, and the successor announced in October 2022 was reference 5811/1G-001, made in white gold only.

The case grew from 40 mm to 41 mm, and Patek measures it from the ten o'clock corner to the four o'clock corner, so the figure does not compare directly with a round watch. It is 8.2 mm thick. The dial shades from blue in the centre to black at the rim over horizontal embossed ridges, with applied white gold markers. The bracelet is white gold too, closing on Patek's fold-over clasp with a lockable adjustment for fine-tuning the fit.

The 5811 also changed the movement. Calibre 324 gave way to the 26-330 S C, self-winding at 4 Hz with a power reserve Patek quotes as 35 to 45 hours, shown through a sapphire caseback. It carries the Patek Philippe Seal, the company's own standard for finishing and accuracy.

Gold changes how the watch wears. White gold is far denser than steel, so the 5811 sits heavier on the wrist than its 8.2 mm suggests, and it looks almost identical to the steel 5711 it replaced. Only the owner feels the difference. Patek marks the Nautilus's 50th anniversary in 2026.

Every watch here exists in versions that look alike in a photograph and are not the same watch. These are the ones to check before paying.

Speedmaster: hesalite or sapphire

The 310.30.42.50.01.001 has a hesalite crystal and a solid caseback embossed with a seahorse. The 310.30.42.50.01.002 has sapphire on both sides, so the movement shows through the back, and Omega lists it at $9,000. The hesalite is the one built to the flight-qualified specification.

Submariner: with or without the date

The 124060 has no date and runs calibre 3230. The 126610LN, the Submariner Date, has a date at three under a Cyclops lens and runs calibre 3235. Both are 41 mm in steel with a black dial and bezel, and at least one dealer listing has given the no-date the wrong calibre.

Tank Must: size and power

Small, large and extra-large share one drawing. Small and large come in quartz or SolarBeat solar; only the extra-large is automatic. Our link is the small quartz WSTA0107.

Nautilus: 5711 and 5811

The 5711 was 40 mm in steel and ran calibre 324. The 5811/1G, since October 2022, is 41 mm in white gold and runs the 26-330 S C. A secondhand 5711 is a different watch from the current catalogue one, at a different price.

Royal Oak: 15500 and 15510

The 15510ST replaced the 15500 in 2022. Both are 41 mm. The 2022 pieces carry the anniversary rotor, which collectors treat as a variant of its own.

For the dress side of the same price range, the Tudor Monarch to the Jaeger-LeCoultre perpetual calendar, see luxury dress watches. The everyday versions of these ideas, from the Tissot PRX's integrated bracelet to the Hamilton Khaki Field, are in watches under $1,000.