CLASSICAL INNOVATIONS
How the oldest watchmaker in the world continues breaking horological barriers
WHEN YOU FIRST take the plunge into the bottomless depths of horology, you’ll usually float towards the usual suspects. And then, you dive deeper and start hearing the more experienced watch folks mentioning the name Vacheron Constantin.
One of the oldest watchmakers in the world, with a history dating back to 1755, Vacheron Constantin is an important name in horology with a rich heritage in making complicated watches. It’s safe to say that watchmaking would not be where it is now without the strides made by it.
Yet Another Achievement
The watchmaker has been on the roll in the past decade, accomplishing new feats again and again, to the point that we’ve come to expect something astounding from Vacheron Constantin each time the annual SIHH watch fair comes around. This year is no different. Behold the Traditionnelle Twin Beat Perpetual Calendar (pictured, above). The straightforward name belies the intricate complexity of this machine.
Vacheron Constantin has always maintained that the most useful high complication on a watch is the perpetual calendar and we agree. There is one problem with it though. If the power reserve on a perpetual calendar runs down to empty, resetting the watch to the current time, date and year can be a cumbersome undertaking. What’s worse, if the task is improperly performed, it could mean a trip to the service centre.
The Traditionnelle Twin Beat Perpetual Calendar is Vacheron Constantin’s elegant
handwound solution to that conundrum. Essentially, there are two oscillators in the watch, both powered by the same energy source. A pusher at eight o’clock allows the user to switch between Active Mode and Standby Mode. The former has a four-day power reserve while the latter gives you a whopping 65 days of energy, so to speak. The subdial at nine o’clock indicates the mode that the watch is on while the power reserve scale at 12 o’clock acts as a fuel gauge, letting you see how much power is left at a glance. The engineering to create this watch is nothing short of outstanding but the most impressive achievement is that Vacheron Constantin has managed to fit all 480 parts required for this movement into a reasonably-sized 42mm case.
Continuous Innovation
Yet, we dare say that the Twin Beat is not the brand’s greatest feat. Four years ago, it unveiled Les Cabinotiers Reference 57260 to mark its 260th anniversary. Heralded as the most sophisticated mechanical watch ever made, it was commissioned by a collector and has a jaw-dropping 57 complications. Three master watchmakers spent a total of eight years to develop it.
Setting Standards
There are others, of course. Watches that would have made the Hall of Fame in other brands but are just considered another day in the maison of Vacheron Constantin. There is that complicated pocket watch sold to King Farouk of Egypt in 1946 for a princely sum, and the Les Cabinotiers Celestia Astronomical Grand Complication 3600 released two years ago that we’re still salivating over. The Twin Beat is just another notch in the belt of watchmaking excellence for Vacheron Constantin, one of the most innovative watchmakers in the world. AM