Vacheron Constantin

Quick-Look Review: Vacheron Consatntin - Historiques Ultrathin 1955

 

Quick Look Review: Vacheron Constantin Historiques 1955

We collectors tend to spend a lot of our energy on wristwatch complications, praising tourbillons, repeaters, chronographs, perpetual and annual calendars, retrograding hands, alternative time displays, seconds time zones, and of course, the mixing and matching of said complications. They are interesting for being complications, but they are also thick, which can take away from the elegance of a watch. There was a time in the mid-20th Century when the focus was on making a watch as thin and elegant as possible, thinness being a virtue in and of itself. From the 1940’s into the 1950’s Vacheron Constantin in conjunction with ebauche maker JLC moved from the caliber 453, with a thickness of 4 mm, to the caliber 1001 at 2.94 mm, and finally to the caliber 1003 at a mere 1.64 mm of thickness. While there have been slimmer movements, none have had the reliability of the caliber 1003.

Vacheron Constantin celebrated its 200th anniversary in 1955 with the launch of this ultrathin caliber 1003, and created a new case just for the occasion. The reference 6099 has lugs that call to mind a portion of the Maltese Cross that is the emblem of the brand.

(In fact, there was a suite of five reference with that case design launched that year of varying sizing and movements, my favorite being the 6068 with galvanized Maltese Cross dial:


It used the caliber 1001)

There would be dozens if not hundreds more cases to use the caliber 1003 over the next five decades, and the movement would adapt well to skeletonization. It would surely surprise the designers of the caliber 1003 that their movement is still in production today!

With the rebirth of the Historiques collection over the past five years it would be inevitable that Vacheron Constantin would pay homage to its history of making ultrathin watches. Indeed, in 2010 the brand launched a pair of watches that would feature Vacheron Constantin’s best historical efforts in manual and self-winding ultrathin movements: the Historiques 1955 and Historiques 1968 respectively.

The updated 1955, now with reference number 33155, expands the diameter from the reference 6099’s 32 mm to a more contemporarily suitable 36 mm while also making the case thinner at a mere 4 mm of thickness, down from 5 mm.


Notice that the angularity of the lugs has been softened in the new design while still retaining the distinctive Maltese Cross shape, making for a smoother flow from the lugs to the case. The use of a sapphire crystal, not an option in 1955 when the 6099 came out, allows for a flatter and more durable watch. The case back is affixed by four screws, and water resistance is 30 meters, which also speaks to advances in case and gasket design over the decades.

Like in the Historiques 1968, Vacheron Constantin uses 18K 4N rose gold in the 33155, which is hard to distinguish without a reference for comparison with standard yellow gold

In looking through that sapphire case back, one is struck by the use of gold for the plates and bridges


Vacheron Constantin has brought the production of the caliber 1003 in house, and this movement proudly bears the Geneva Hallmark. It’s relatively oversized balance beats at 18,000 VPH.

The glossy black crocodile strap with rolled edge makes this a supremely elegant timepiece, and I can think of no better watch to adorn the wrist of a gentleman dressed in a tuxedo. I’m hoping that James Bond upgrades his watch this year.


Bill Lind
VC Forum Moderator

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