Hi guys, I have bought a Cartier Vermeil Must de Tank large model shown below for USD200. As it was pretty heavily worn, gold plated on the case has fallen off a bit at each lug leg.

I went to Cartier for a quote of service and surprisingly in my country they recently offer full service, and replacement of hands, crowns, crystal and dial for free for all Must de watches.

From a collector standpoint, besides the full service, should I agree to replacement of any of the parts? At the moment, if they can adjust the dial back to original square position, I tend to just change the crystal (it currently show quite a bit of scratches) and keep all other parts.

Your views are very much appreciated. As the watch is still in Cartier’s custody, only photos below are available at the moment.

 

Quite honestly, I think it's unlikely that this will ever be a collectible watch, so IMO you should do whatever will give you the most pleasure in wearing it.

 

Take them up on their offer. You will end up with a beautiful watch and it costs nothing. As @Dan S points out the Must de Cartier is not a particularly sought after vintage piece so replacement parts will not hurt the value. I wish Cartier would offer that to US based folks. I would drop off my Tank Francaise in a heartbeat.

 

Thanks both for the advice! And the only thing I am concerned about is whether the heavily worn case will go well with new crown, dial, crystal and hands as they do not offer re-plating for the gold case. Any further views or experience to share?

 

You might want to contact a local jeweler and see if they can re-plate the case. It does not appear to bad to me and a good cleaning and a light polish might give you acceptable results.

 

The case is sterling. Have a goldsmith reverse plate it to remove the gold plating, then wear as a silver watch.

 

.....but just in case, get the old parts back

 

Cartier made tons of these fashion watches in the $200 range, they aren't a collector piece. Are you sure Cartier will do all that work for free, it justs sounds a bit too good to be true for a Richemont group company, especially on a low value product. Maybe the parts are free and you pay the labor? Just be clear what the conditions are.

 

I worked for a Cartier dealer, years ago. I sent a Must de Cartier in for warranty service. The watch was ten years old. They replied with an estimate of a huge repair, indicating that the only thing that was warranteed was the mainspring! Life time warrantee? Ha!

 

'And to mark the debut of the new Tank models, Cartier is offering a “complementary maintenance and service to any owner of this watch, regardless of the year it was created” – which applies to any vintage Les Must de Cartier Tank. Presumably, the complementary servicing will not be a permanent offering – there was a similar, limited-time offer for vintage Pasha models last year – so Tank owners would do well to act sooner rather than later.'



From https://watchesbysjx.com/2021/04/cartier-tank-must-de-cartier-colours.html

 

Unfortunately they said the old parts will not be given back to me....