By: WHL
[VC Moderator]

By: WHL
[VC Moderator]

By: tony p
tony p

By: Z3

By: foversta
[PuristSPro Moderator]

By: tick-talk

While I was in Switzerland during the week of April 16th I had the pleasure is sitting down with Julien Marchenoir, Vacheron Constantin’s Brand Equity and Heritage Director. Our hour long discussion was largely focused on vintage watches. PuristSPro: Please tell us about your career at Vacheron Constantin.Julien: I joined the Richemont Group in 1999, becoming the marketing assistant to the international marketing director of the group based in London. I did this for two years. Then the chairma... more

I've been out of collecting vintage Vacheron Constantin since 2006, but that doesn't mean that I don't appreciate great vintage VC watches when I see them! I've had the opportunity recently to handle a pair of vintage gems that makes me nostalgic for the days when I scoured the vintage markets looking for interesting watches to fulfill my collecting desires.  The Ref 4310 was one that got away from me. In 2005 I took my first trip to Switzerland for a PuristS-sponsored visit to Vacheron Constan... more

Vacheron Constantin has long been considered one of the “Big Three” watchmakers along with Patek Philippe and Audemars Piguet. Each brand has been expertly creating timepieces of the highest order for over a century. When I collected vintage watches my tastes in horological appreciation have always been most sated by the models of Vacheron Constantin, which, more so than with Patek Philippe and Audemars Piguet, have a flair for the bold, especially in regards to case, lug, and dial design... more

  The Patrimony Contemporaine collection is probably the most successful collection of watches in current production at Vacheron Constantin. The manual winding reference 81180 and self winding with date reference 85180 are classic designs with a contemporary size, and judging by my own experience with the 81180, a true pleasure to wear on a daily basis.   The line has also successfully taken on complications with the Retrograding Day and Date   and, introduced only a... more

Three months running and another article on the accessories of Vacheron Constantin: I don’t think I can keep this up. December was about an entire year’s accumulation of goodies. January about the swag that comes to those who attend SIHH. And then yesterday I got a surprise package courtesy of Vacheron Constantin: a book entitled Collector’s Island. In and of itself, this is a beautiful book. I haven’t had something  produced this well since I subscribed to Jay’s Jou... more

The introduction of a new caliber is always a big event for a watch manufacturer. It marks the end of a long and expensive development period that necessitates countless hours of testing, feedback, quality control, production planning, and training. When Vacheron Constantin introduced its in-house manual winding caliber 1400 in 2001, an inevitable question was when could collectors expect an automatic movement from the company. The wait was long, but worth it! In 2005, for the 250th anniversary of th... more

A visit at the Vacheron booth at the SIHH is always mandatory. First because we have the pleasure to meet our friend Alex, then because Vacheron has always a very special way to create a warm atmosphere at its booth by  emphasizing the "Metiers d'Art" and the skills of its artistic team and last because... the newest Vacheron collection is year after year a main event of the SIHH.I will be frank with you and will not beat around the bush: for the first time for many years, I was a bit disappoint... more

We’ve all probably seen the press releases about the novelties from Vacheron Constantin by now. The focus has been on the update to the Malte collection, celebrating the 100th anniversary of the tonneau form in Vacheron Constantin’s history, with the introduction of four new models in the third generation of the Malte design since 2000. That year, Vacheron Constantin introduced its first in-house movement with the caliber 1790. This movement featured a tourbillon as well as pointer dat... more

As we close out the 2011 calendar year and start looking forward to the novelties that will be presented in Geneva in just a few week’s time, let’s look back at all the new watches that Vacheron Constantin brought out this past year. The 2011 watch year got off to a great start in late 2010 when Vacheron Constantin introduced the Quai de l’Ile Annual Calendar:   This is the first time that Vacheron Constantin has attempted this particular complication, and they brought to ... more

  My last post was about the additions and deletions from my Vacheron Constantin collection of watches. Today I am going to share the additions I have made to my collection of Vacheron Constantin accessories. I have written about such paraphernalia in the past: vacheron.watchprosite.com= and that link links back to other posts about VC goodies. J 2011 has seen some cool additions to my collection. At the end of last winter a fellow collector sent me a beautiful wool scarf that is embroidered w... more

2011 was an exciting year for me on the watch front. After straying from VC with an independently made watch in 2010, I got back into the fold with a pair of watches in 2011. But before I get to the new, I will reveal that out went the old.....the really old. After mulling my collection over for a while I decided that I only wanted watches that I would wear, and though I had owned many wonderful vintage Vacheron Constantin watches, I found myself never wearing them. I liked having them, but I never c... more

It has now been three years since the Quai de l’Ile was launched in the North American market. The line was debuted at SIHH 2008 and was ready for limited distribution that autumn. I wrote a detailed review of the titanium Quai de l’Ile Day-Date-Power Reserve in the summer of 2009: vacheron.watchprosite.com I still stand by my conclusions from that review, principally that I find people have a love-hate relationship with the design.Since that review, Vacheron Constantin has continued to sho... more

I was pleased to see the first of the Patrimony Traditionnelle World Time models arrive in the North American market last week. Introduced with top billing in a strong year for novelties from Vacheron Constantin (which also included the Patrimony Contemporaine Perpetual Calendar, Historiques Aronde 1954, and Quai de l’ Ile Annual Calendar), the World Time watch breaks new ground for Vacheron Constantin, which had not had a proper world time complication in its catalog for decades. Alex Gho... more

Vacheron Constantin makes great watches, but its success has been based almost entirely on creating watches for men. With the exception of the asymmetrical 1972 there is no iconic ladies design that collectors would identify as coming from Vacheron Constantin. (And the 1972 was originally conceived for men!)Whereas Cartier has the Tank Francaise and the Ballon Bleu, Patek Philippe has the Twenty-Four, and Breguet has the Reine de Naples, all distinct designs that are quite successful in the marke... more

I had the great pleasure of visiting Vacheron Constantin’s New York boutique for the first time last week. While the principal reason I was down in New York was to attend a celebratory dinner for the boutique’s grand opening prepared by legendary chef Thomas Keller (more on this in a future post), I also wanted to enjoy the boutique shopping experience and see the special watches on exhibit as part of the American Heritage of Vacheron Constantin. The Shopping ExperienceAs one would expect... more

In writing about the Historiques Ultra-fine 1968 and in thinking about the idea of an ultra thin movement being its own complication, I concluded that there is an inherent desirability to the caliber 1120 and thus the watches in which Vacheron Constantin historically and currently employs it. As a collector of Vacheron Constantin watches I have paid just as much attention to the movements inside the watches I pursue as I do to the cases, dials, and their respective conditions, and some of my favorite... more