Come together
Vacheron Constantin duets with Abbey Road Studios for the ultimate chiming horological complications
From Shirley Bassey and Sir Cliff Richard to The Beatles and Pink Floyd, legendary artists have recorded their hits at Abbey Road Studios in London.
Four Seasons, The Sixth Symphony, A Celestial Note and The Dance Of Gemstones are among the latest releases from the world-famous studio. The talented artists, however, are Vacheron Constantin’s unique watches from the La Musique du Temps “album” that plays the sounds of time.
“This partnership is a celebration of shared history, passions and values,” said Laurent Perves, Vacheron Constantin’s chief marketofficer. ing “As an historical patron of arts and music, our maison is delighted to collaborate in the fields of communication and experience but also to explore musical production and sound innovation with the best experts and engineers.”
To learn more about haute horlogerie, Abbey Road Studios senior sound engineer Andrew Dudman visited the manufacture in Plan-lesOuates, in the outskirts of Geneva, Switzerland. “It’s an amazingly detailed process that goes into creating each tiny component. The watchmaking is all done to the highest qualeven ity, when it’s hidden behind the watch faces,” Dudman said in a video presenting the Vacheron Constantin X Abbey Road Studios collaboration.
The sound engineer was fascinated by both the mechanical and artistic aspects of the chiming horological complication. Historically, it was needed to tell the time in the dark, in an age when people had to rely on candlelight.
Audible watches can be categorised into repeaters indicating hours and sometimes quarters and minutes on request, striking sonnerie indicating hours and quarters in passing, and alarms programmed to ring at specific times.
Each of these complications has its own distinctive characteristics, while sharing an integrated and complex mechanism, in terms of resonance, acoustics and harmonics, for the musical expression.
The first mention of a chiming watch in Vacheron Constantin’s archives dates back to 1806. Ever since, sonnerie or repeater watches have been an integral part of its heritage.
The new La Musique du Temp collection features one-of-a kind creations crafted by the Swiss brand’s Les Cabinotiers department, whose name refers to 18th-century master watchmakers. Their horological creations were conceived in ateliers bathed in natural light, known as cabinets, located on the top floors of Geneva’s buildings.
The collection includes Les Cabinotiers Minute Repeater Ultrathin–A Romantic Note; Minute Repeater Ultra-thin–The Dance Of Gemstones; Symphonia Grande Sonnerie – The Sixth Symphony; Minute Repeater Tourbillon Sky Chart– A Celestial Note; Minute Repeater Tourbillon– Four Seasons; and Minute Repeater Perpetual Calendar – A Perfect Combination.
Each exceptional timepiece is delivered with an original sonic print recorded at Abbey Road Studios, founded in 1931 and housed in a building that dates back to 1829.
“When we are doing any sort of recording session, you have to think about what you want the end result to be,” said Dudman. “We wanted to have the most representative version of the chimes that can be heard clearly, precisely and captures all the detail, beauty and depth of each chime.”
Vacheron Constantin’s high-complications specialist Alain Lambercy participated in the recording to ensure the performance of each watch.
“To have our timepieces in such an amazing place like Abbey Road Studios was really an honour. You can feel the history of the place and the creative energy that flows there,” Lambercy said in the collaboration’s video. “When I saw the set-up, I realised how much attention was drawn to get the sound recording perfectly right. They have the same passion for their work as we do at Vacheron Constantin.”