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A day at Vacheron Constantin
On the last day of a 4 day trip to Switzerland where we had met up amongst others with Philippe Dufour (who off topic is an absolutely fantastic person to talk to, being so passionate about his craft) we had arranged to make the best of it an visit the Vacheron Constantin museum located on the top floor of the famous Vacheron boutique on the Quai du Rhone
There we met up with Mrs Pascale Chamay-Berger in charge of press relations, Mrs Genevieve-Anne Howard in charge of the archives and Mr Bulle who is head of the restoration/repairs department
The museum its self is very small with about 100 objects on exhibition but we also got to see some of the pieces that were not shown and when the offices move to the new facilities in Plan les Ouates, the size of the museum will be expanded and all the magnificent Vacheron watches past and present will be on display.
The museum is very interestingly decorated as in the painting of Christophe Fran?ois Ziegler of the Cabinotiers with automatons representing watch makers at their desk working as in the 18th century.
The watchmakers at the time very intelligently used a recipient with coloured water to magnify the light of the lamps to be able to work after dark.
An 18th century minute repeater in preparation
Registry of watches sent to New York dating from early 20th century
Display case of pocket watches
Pocket watches from different era:
Here is an absolutely gorgeous enamel case pocket watch for the Indian market (19th century)
A beautiful grande complication
An inline perpetual calendar
Pendant watches from 1900-1920
A collection of winding keys
Wrist watches from 1920s to early 1990s
The visit took about an hour and while we were talking with Mr Bulle and Mrs Howard, Mrs Chamay-Berger walks in and asks us if we wanted to visit the manufacture, YOU BET!! We hopped into a taxi and headed to Carrouge right in the outskirts of Geneva.
The watchmakers here (approximately 60 people) are responsible for the assembly, finish and regulation of the watches. The conception and most of the high horology and complicated pieces are taken care of in the ateliers in the Vall?e du Joux (here is a scan of VCVJ ? Vacheron Constantin Vall?e du Joux).
We had a quick tour since it was getting late and most of the watchmakers were heading out and on top of it not much space was left on Alberto?s memory disk to take more pictures.
Here is the room where the movements are assembled
A watchmaker setting the correct place where the centre wheel axis will be set on the lower plate of an ultra thin watch. This is always done manually with a thin piece of wood !!
Regulation was done in the next room
A tray of balance wheels
A close up of the escapement system
Accuracy testing machines
We next stepped in the room specialised in complications and we were like kids in a candy store. Here the watches are finished and assembled by the same watchmaker.
Some goodies
From left to right: Audubon Birds series, perpetual calendar, perpetual calendar chronograph, Malte skeleton tourbillon, Royal Eagle Quanti?me and Malte R?gulateur
From left to right
Skeleton minute repeater, minute repeater, grande complication pocket watch (circa 1990s), tourbillon with power reserve
Back plates of the Malte Tourbillon
We could have easily spent a couple of hours in there discussing with the watchmakers who were really fascinating and passionate people but we decided to let them work and ended our visit with a drink at the Vacheron cafeteria:
Here is the whole team with Mrs. Chamay-Berger and Mr. Bulle (the gentleman with wearing a tie).
After the end of our visit we headed for the airport delighted with such a perfect day and promised ourselves to get organised to visit the VCVJ facilities in the near future.
I would like to thank Mrs. Chamay-Berger, Mrs Howard and Mr. Bulle for their warm welcome and time and once again Alberto for the photos.
