The extra-large is where the Tank Must stops behaving like a dress watch.
At 41 × 31 mm it is by some distance the biggest Tank in the line. It is also the only one with a mechanical movement — the automatic calibre 1847 MC — and the only one with a date, tucked at six o'clock beneath a silvered flinqué dial with blued-steel sword hands. Add the steel bracelet the WSTA0053 is sold on and you have something that reads less like the 1917 Tank and more like a modern everyday watch in a rectangular case.
Which is exactly why it is the most interesting Tank Must to put on leather. You are not maintaining a dress watch here. You are deciding which of two quite different watches you want to wear.
Lug Width: the WSTA0053 takes a 23 mm strap
On the product page, select the 23 mm option.
The extra-large Tank case uses a 23 mm strap. Independent strap makers list the Tank size ladder as 16 mm for the small, 19 mm for the large and 23 mm for the extra-large, and 23 mm is the size we stock for the model.
| Tank Must model | Case | Strap |
|---|---|---|
| Small | 29.5 × 22 mm | 16 mm |
| Large | 33.7 × 25.5 mm | 19 mm |
| Extra-Large (WSTA0053) | 41 × 31 mm | 23 mm |
This is the size that gets ordered wrong most often in the other direction — people who know the Tank Must is "a 19 mm watch" order 19 mm for an extra-large. If your case measures 31 mm across, you need 23 mm.
Getting the bracelet off
The bracelet releases through Cartier's own mechanism at the end link. Once it is off, you are looking at conventional 23 mm lugs, and a strap fits with standard spring bars — a spring bar tool or our installation tool is all it takes.
Keep the bracelet and its removed links together. An extra-large Tank Must missing links is worth noticeably less than a complete one, and replacing them is not cheap.
Buckle finish: silver. Anything gold-toned next to a steel case looks borrowed from another watch.
Why size changes the argument
On a small or large Tank, a strap is mostly a question of style. On the extra-large it does something structural.
The strap is a much bigger share of what you see. A 23 mm band under a 31 mm-wide case covers a large area of wrist, so the material and the colour carry far more weight than they do on a 16 mm strap under a small Tank. Whatever you choose here, you will notice it.
Leather narrows a wide watch. On the bracelet, steel runs unbroken from the case outwards and the whole thing reads as one continuous mass — which is part of why the extra-large wears as large as it does. A strap draws a hard line at the lugs, so the case reads as a defined rectangle rather than the widest part of a metal band. The watch looks more deliberate and, on most wrists, more wearable.
And it is a mechanical watch. The extra-large is the only Tank Must with an automatic movement in it. Putting it on leather is what makes that obvious — it stops looking like the quartz Tank everyone owns and starts looking like the one that isn't.
The four best straps for the WSTA0053
1. Black leather — the one that contains a big case
Black Leather Strap for Cartier Tank
On a 41 × 31 mm rectangle, black does something no other colour does: it visually tightens the watch. Dark leather recedes, so the eye reads the steel case as the object and the strap as the shadow underneath it — the watch looks narrower and more precise than it does on metal or on a light strap.
It is also the most formal option, and the most useful if the extra-large is your one watch. If you buy a single strap for this reference, buy this one.
2. Brown leather — warmth, and the classical Tank look
Brown Leather Strap for Cartier Tank
Steel and a silvered dial can read cold, and on a case this size that coldness is amplified. Brown is the correction: it warms the whole watch, moves it decisively away from the bracelet's modern character, and puts the extra-large into the same visual family as the gold Tanks that have been worn on brown leather for a century. The most flattering of the four, and the one that changes the watch most.
3. Blue leather — the details Cartier already put there
Blue Leather Strap for Cartier Tank
The hands are blued steel and the cabochon in the crown is a blue spinel. On a big dial with a flinqué finish, those details have room to be seen — and a blue strap connects them to the rest of the watch instead of leaving them as small accents. It keeps the cooler, more contemporary character the bracelet gives the watch, while still taking the weight and the width down.
4. Red leather — the extra-large can carry it
Red Leather Strap for Cartier Tank
Red has followed Cartier since the boxes, and on a small Tank it reads as an accent. Here there is enough strap area for it to be a genuine statement — which is either the reason to buy it or the reason not to. If your extra-large already sits alongside other watches and you want this one to be the interesting one, this is the fastest route.
Every colour and width is in the Cartier Tank, Tank Louis, Américaine, Solo and Must strap collection.
Fit, in one line
Order 23 mm with the silver buckle, and fit it with standard spring bars once the bracelet is off.
More Cartier strap guides
- Cartier Tank Must WSTA0041 Strap Guide — the large model, which takes 19 mm
- Cartier Tank Solo WSTA0028 Strap Guide
- All Cartier strap guides
You already own the expensive half
The bracelet stays yours. Adding a strap does not modify the watch, does not affect its value, and takes two minutes — and on the extra-large it changes the watch more than it would on any other Tank, simply because there is more of it to change.
Helvetus straps are cut for the Tank case in every width from 14 mm to 25 mm and shaped so the leather meets the brancards without the gap a generic strap always leaves.
More than 50,000 customers worldwide, free shipping and free returns, and no import costs on any order, anywhere. Leather straps are covered for one year; our rubber straps carry a lifetime warranty.
