When Jean-Marc Vacheron opened his little workshop in the Saint-Gervais district of Geneva in 1715, little could he imagine that two hundred and fifty years later there would be an horolog-ical celebration that would go far beyond his wildest dreams. Vacheron Constantin has marked the event with a pyramid of creations that includes four different Limited Editions each with its own complications and each with its own ‘look’ and peaked with a single unique mysterious clock that took more than fours years to create. Exceptionally, the brand has been given the authorization to use the Poinçon de Genève symbol on the dials of all the watches within the anniversary collections.

Jubilé 1755 (40 mm)
The Jubilé 1755 is the base model of the anniversary collection. For this, a completely new mechanical self-winding Calibre 2475 movement was created with day, date and power reserve (43 hours) indications. The hours and minutes hands are fan-shaped in 18 carat gold, the sweep seconds hand is baton-shaped in blued steel and the hand for the other indications are dagger-shaped blued steel.
The Limited Edition of 1755 watches comprises 500 each in yellow, white and pink gold with a nickel silver dial, a special ‘250’ anniversary guilloché motif and 18 carat gold Roman numerals at 12 and 6 o’clock and appliqué indices. There are also 250 pieces in platinum with a brilliant-brushed platinum dial along with 5 watches reserved for the brand’s heritage collection.
The number one of each model will be sold at auction by Antiquorum on 3 April 2005.




Métiers d’art (40 mm) & Jubilé 1755 (40mm)


Métiers d’art (40 mm)
The Métiers d’art watches underline and pay tribute to the long and passionate relationship that Vacheron Constantin has enjoyed with the various professions within the decorative arts.
There will be just 12 sets of four watches of this symbolic collection. The set comprises a white gold watch exemplifying spring, a yellow gold watch for the warmer hues of summer, pink gold for the passage to autumn and finally platinum for the arrival of winter.
The watches are equipped with a new Calibre 2460 mechanical self-winding movement and the hours, minutes, day and date indications are seen in four different apertures using a dragging disc for the first two and a semi-jumping disc for the last two. The dials, yellow gold and white gold (winter), show Apollo’s chariot and four horses and the sun (gold and platinum for the winter model), combine the miniature, champlevé and translucent techniques of enamelling. Diamonds are also used on the winter model.
The number one set will be sold at auction by Antiquorum on 3 April 2005.

Saint-Gervais (44 mm)
The ‘Grande Complication’ Saint-Gervais is a tribute to the craftsmen of the founder’s epoch and is a Limited Edition of 55 pieces. This platinum watch uses 410 parts for the various functions and the Calibre 2250 mechanical hand-wound movement is powered by four barrels offering a 250-hour power reserve. The power reserve indicators are either side of the tourbillion cage with each indicator showing a 125-hour segment which wind down in turn. Although the watch will continue for several hours once the indicators have reached their 125-hour segments, the choice of 250 hours is symbolic of the anniversary. The functions are hours and minutes, small seconds (at 6 o’clock), tourbillion, perpetual calendar showing day, date, month and leap years. The dial is in 18 carat gold with a special 250th anniversary guilloché. The hours and minutes hands are in white gold, the baton seconds hand is in rhodium-finished 18 carat gold on the tourbillion carriage and the sub-dials use dagger-shaped blued steel hands.
The number one watch will be sold at auction by Antiquorum on 3 April 2005.

Tour de l’Île (47 mm)
The Tour de l’Île, a creative horological masterpiece, is the world’s first wristwatch that features 16 complications with a read-off on a double-dial recto-verso display. The 18 carat pink gold watch comprises 834 parts and required more than 10,000 hours of research and development by the brand’s design-engineers and watchmakers and takes between four and five months to assemble.
The complications are hours and minutes, seconds at 6 o’clock, a sixty-second tourbillon, a moon phase indicator, age of the moon, repetition of the quarters and minutes upon request, second time zone, torque of the striking mechanism, a power reserve indicator, Perpetual calendar (day, date, month), leap years, perpetual equation of time, sunrise, sunset and sky chart.
The front dial is white gold with a special anniversary guilloché, and the back dial has a light silvered finish with a hand-guilloché motif and 3 rhodium-plated 18 carat gold appliqués.
The watch is in 18 carat pink gold and a Limited Edition of 7 pieces. The number one watch will be sold at auction by Antiquorum on 3 April 2005.




Tour de l’Île (47 mm)



Saint-Gervais (44 mm)


L’Esprit des Cabinotiers
The L’Esprit des Cabinotiers is a one-of-a-kind mysterious clock that will be sold at auction by Antiquorum on 3 April 2005. The extraordinary piece (base: 88 parts, globe 413 parts, cabinet 92 parts, presentation case 82 parts) is an engraved 18 carat pink gold sphere composed of eight petals that symbolize the lotus flower and opens up via a highly sophisticated mechanism to reveal a cylinder and two sapphire crystal domes connected by a pink gold frame. The indications and functions are: a 12-hour display, minutes, deadbeat or independent seconds (seconde morte), hour on 24-hour display, power reserve, day, date, month, leap year, equation of time, moon phases, age of the moon, temperature, hours and quarters striking automatically ‘in passing’ and on request, with the possibility of preventing the automatic strike, astronomical calendar giving the position of the sun according to the Gregorian calendar based on the calculations of Charles Etienne Louis Camus (mathematician, 1699-1768) and Antide Janvier (watchmaking mechanical engineer, 1751-1835). The base on which the piece stands is in lapis lazuli, onyx, rock crystal and 18 carat pink gold.




L’Esprit des Cabinotiers


A tribute
These Limited Edition timepieces are a genuine celebration of time and magnificently combine every art within the watchmaker’s palette. They highlight the enormous horological talents of Switzerland’s oldest watch manufacturer and underline the fallacy that everything has already been achieved in watchmaking. Happy Birthday Vacheron Constantin!


Source: April-May 2005 Issue

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