Just what the hell is going on at Vacheron Constantin?” This is the question I’ve asked myself for the past few successive years every time I attend a COVID-friendly, digitally optimized Watches and Wonders, or witness the launch of their latest timepieces. Because the only way to describe the watches emerging from the world’s oldest continuously operating manufacture is that they are so damnably good.
What’s that? You want irrefutable evidence? OK, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I give you the Overseas Perpetual Calendar, an ultra thin masterpiece of design, horological authenticity and a profound demonstration that whoever it is at Vacheron commissioning, designing and producing this absolutely stellar timepiece, understands exactly the type of watch the modern consumer wants to wear. The size of the watch is perfect, the dynamic tension between a muscular diameter contrasted by a lithe thin profile is perfect. The design is perfect. The choice of the precise blue Pantone color used for the dial is perfect. The skeletonized version of it is perfect. The 48-month leap year indicator based on their old pocket watches is perfect. The quick-change system between the rubber bracelet and precious metal bracelet is perfect. So much so that I would even say it could actually be a better watch than the Patek Nautilus 5740, especially in terms of wearability and adaptability. And well… until two years ago, unlike the other grail watch integrated bracelet perp cals, you could actually get one, although that era is now decidedly over, with both this watch and its ultra thin time and date counterpart selling for considerable premiums. On the subject of the Overseas, let’s talk about the Everest, the 150-piece limited edition based on the watch worn by Cory Richards on his ascent to the famed peak, which broke the Internet and is selling now for insane nose bleed premiums on the secondary market.
But that’s just one model family. What’s one of the greatest complicated watches in recent memory? It has to be last year’s Traditionnelle Split Seconds Chronograph Ultra Thin – Collection Excellence Platine, an absolutely mind-blowingly beautiful timepiece with the single most beautiful automatic split seconds chronograph movement in creation. The idea of coupling (pun intended) a ravishing traditionally executed split seconds movement, with incendiary finishing — check out the black polish
