Sky’s the Limit
On top of the success of its most complicated watch last year, Vacheron Constantin creates a wristwatch version
AN ANNIVERSARY is always good cause for fanfare in the watchmaking world. While the passing of half a decade may not seem much ordinarily, brands have been expected to deliver significant products every five years to satiate consumer appetite for anniversary commemorative pieces.
Last year, Vacheron Constantin did more than just satiate the demand; the brand effectively threw down the gauntlet to show that the race to create the most complicated watch in the world (wrist, pocket or otherwise) is still very much on and that it was the absolute forerunner in this marathon.
The unveiling of the Vacheron Constantin Reference 57260, a pocketwatch bearing 57 complications and the celebratory masterpiece of the brand’s 260th birthday, was a widely celebrated event. Unfortunately only one man walked home with the piece. The purchaser, whose identity is still not revealed, sits on top of a timepiece that has raised plenty of eyebrows and turned many of us green.
Barely half a year on, Vacheron Constantin is at it again, releasing the wrist adaptation of the Ref. 57260. Off the bat, we’re beside ourselves with happiness that Vacheron Constantin chose to depart from the extremely traditional aesthetics of the original pocketwatch. The contemporary finishing and architecture of the new Vacheron Constantin Maître Cabinotier Retrograde Armillary Tourbillon (yes, it’s a mouthful) immediately demonstrates to the public that the oldest running watchmaker in the world is set to step out of its classicist comfort zone.
Looks aside, the Vacheron Constantin Maître Cabinotier Retrograde Armillary Tourbillon is very much in the same realm of watchmaking wizardry as the Ref. 57260. Two of the original’s more talked about complications made their way on to the new piece: the armillary tourbillon and the double retrograde indication ‒ each complication taking one half of the watch’s dial.
An armillary sphere, in essence, is a model of objects in the celestial sky with either the Sun or the Earth in the centre. Inspired by this, Vacheron Constantin’s Armillary Tourbillon’s carriage acts as the lines of celestial longitude, latitude and ecliptic that one would normally see on said sphere. This double axis (as opposed to the Ref. 57260’s triple axis) tourbillon just happens to utilise a spherical balance spring, a rarity in modern timepieces.
The man, yes just the one, who owns the Maître Cabinotier Retrograde Armillary Tourbillon surely cannot help but spend hours on end admiring the ever-rotating inner and outer cages of the tourbillon that rotate to form the Maltese cross of Vacheron Constantin once every 15 seconds from the front. On top of that, there’s also a sapphire window on the case side for a more in-depth look at horology’s favourite whirlwind complication.
The right side of the piece holds the timetelling indicators, an understatement of what genius the Atelier Cabinotier can get up to. Imagine having a full dial with the usual 12 hours and 60 minutes across 360°‒ now halve that; how then do you tell the time?
For Vacheron Constantin, the answer was simple (well, so simple that it now has a patent). You build a movement that has both a retrograde hour hand and a retrograde minute hand atop each other on the same axis ‒ an effort that we have yet to see replicated anywhere else.
The Maître Cabinotier Retrograde Armillary Tourbillon will no doubt, go down in history alongside the Ref. 57260 as “Timepieces You Need to Know” for future watch journalists, and for good reason.
So while we weep a little at the fact that nobody around us will be flashing this piece on their wrists, there is a sense of excitement that Vacheron Constantin seems to be on a roll.
One can’t help but wonder what the brand will adapt next from the Ref. 57260 but one thing is for sure ‒ Vacheron Constantin is looking to pick up the pace and will be pushing the boundaries of complicated watches further.