Curiosity, wonder and admiration – that’s what you feel when, on the first floor of Vacheron Constantin’s Geneva boutique, you discover the dozen watches of the special collection Les Collectionneurs. A round men’s watch from 1942 piques the curiosity: a chronograph with a pulsometer scaled to 30 beats. This “doctor’s watch” made it possible to determine the heart rate – you started the chronograph at the first counted beat and stopped it at the thirtieth, whereupon a scale showed the rate per minute. Another timepiece, a telemeter from 1952, calculated, thanks to a kilometre scale, the distance at which lightning had struck: you only had to start the stopwatch at the sound of thunder. These pieces are just a few examples of the know-how of the prestigious Swiss brand founded in 1755.
On 17 September 1755, Jean-Marc Vacheron, the 24-year-old master watchmaker, took on his first apprentice before a notary – so recounts Franco Cologni, former president of the Fondation de la Haute Horlogerie, in his reference work “Vacheron Constantin – Artists of Time” (Flammarion, 2015). According to the contract, the young watchmaker promised to teach the apprentice his trade for five years and to provide board and lodging; the father vouched that his son would complete the apprenticeship. This agreement is the brand’s very first mention and makes it the oldest watch manufacture still in operation in the world. Sixty-four years later, the name Constantin joined that of Vacheron: Jacques-Barthélemy, Jean-Marc’s grandson, had taken over the company and needed a partner who, like him, travelled abroad to sell watches. François Constantin, the son of a grain merchant and sent out on the road at 14, was that man. The travelling salesman and the watchmaker, both Genevans of the same age, became friends and joined their names on 1 April 1819. The story of Vacheron Constantin had begun.
Technique and Aesthetics
What are the most significant stages? “A vast question!” notes Christian Selmoni, director of style and heritage at the company with the Maltese cross. “From the very first years, you can see the determination to devote itself to creating timepieces of great value, both aesthetic and technical. Our archives mention the development of complicated watches, mainly with striking mechanisms, as early as 1806. That is remarkable.”
Equally remarkable is the continuation of this saga. At the start of the 19th century the company expanded abroad – thanks to François Constantin’s countless travels, first in Europe, then in the Orient and Far East, and finally in the Americas. “In the second half of the 19th century the Maison devoted itself to the pursuit of precision, forged scientific-research partnerships and offered pocket chronometers much prized by navigators, explorers and scientists,” Selmoni continues. The first half of the 20th century saw complicated watches emerge, especially grand complications as bespoke pocket watches for famous collectors; complicated wristwatches appeared as early as 1917.
Takeover by Richemont
Of course, a company’s life is not all peaks. In the second half of the 1970s, in a difficult climate caused by the rise of quartz watches, the Maison had to reinvent itself. In 1977 it celebrated its 222nd birthday and presented the 222 – a watch with a cheeky, very masculine design that became one of its most recognisable models: a notched bezel, a Maltese cross engraved directly into the case, an integrated metal bracelet. “Regarded as the Maison’s first watch that was both luxurious and sporty, it was a major inspiration for the Overseas, which appeared some twenty years later,” notes Cologni. Even today the Overseas collection enjoys remarkable success: on watchcharts.com some models reach a “rating” of 99 – meaning they have performed better than 99 per cent of watches on the second-hand market.
In 1996 the Maison passed into the hands of the Richemont Group. This change, says Selmoni, enabled development on the technical as well as the commercial and communication levels. “Integration into the Richemont Group also gave us access to varied synergies on many levels. Vacheron Constantin emerged considerably weakened from the difficult period of 1975–1988, and its current position would doubtless not be so favourable without Richemont’s contribution.”
Between 2000 and 2015 the Maison developed a complete range of in-house movements; the high point was, in 2005, the Tour de l’Ile, then the most complicated wristwatch ever made in series. In 2015, with Reference 57260, the watchmaking world witnessed an incredible technical feat: a pocket watch of 2,826 components with 57 complications – “a record so far unbeaten,” says the director of style and heritage. And what remains today of Jean-Marc Vacheron’s legacy? Selmoni is categorical: “Everything! It is a living heritage: more than 400 linear metres of archives, a private collection of over 1,600 Vacheron Constantin watches from 1755 to today, and countless documents. We pass it on – from master to apprentice, from parent to child, from generation to generation, as did Jean-Marc Vacheron, François Constantin and all who have led the Maison since 1755.”
This article appeared in MEN issue 1/22 (May 2022).
