Vacheron Constantin

WHL
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My First VC...

I began my descent into the madness of collecting wristwatches back in 1998 with the purchase of a Chronoswiss Opus. With one nice watch I was quite happy. But I wanted more. About a year later I added an IWC Mark XV to my collection. I was even happier. Then in late 1999 I got an IWC Portofino Perpetual Calendar....simply to watch everything flip over on New Years Eve! I was ecsatic!

In early 2000 I added Girard Perregaux’s Foudroyante Rattrapante watch to my collection: a big beast in rose gold. I was still happy, but perhaps feeling a little guilty about the money going into this “hobby.” Later that year would come a Panerai Luminor Marina, which made me redefine “big beast.”

By this point I was devling deep into auction catalogs, dreaming about big game Patek Philippe watches (The vintage perpetual calendars were then trading between $30K-40K), while realistically thinking about getting a 3960 (which were then trading at about half their current value). I just needed to work up the nerve to start getting watches through non-authorized sources.

Menawhile, in the summer of 2001 I was considering finally adding a nice bracelet watch to my collection. I was getting confortable with the idea of Blancpain’s Flyback chronograph spending time on my wrist, but I also wanted to check out the Overseas. I had tried on the BP serveral times and liked it. The lure of Vacheron Constantin was strong: I had seen a number of fine watches in the auction catalogs, so I knew the historical appeal of the brand, and was well aware of their (then) current production like the Historiques Chronograph and the Retrograding Calendar watch, which appealed to me greatly.

I called my dealer a day before I was ready to go in, to make sure they had in stock all the watches I was considering that day: The BP Flyback, the Overseas Chronometer with silver dial, Overseas Chronometer with slate blue dial, and the Overseas Chronometer with blue dial and arabic numbers. They trasferred one watch from a different store to the one I was going to buy from and I went in the next day. The BP was, and is, a nice watch, but the feeling I got when I strapped on the Overseas was just better. That it cost less than the BP didn’t hurt its case either (remember, I already had two nice chronographs in my collection). All I had to do was decide which dial I liked the best. In the end I chose the blue dial with arabic numbers, and years later became pleasantly surprised when I learned that it was a limited edition of 75 for the North American market, even though it was neither marker nor marketed as such.



I still kept on purchasing watches at a crazy pace, eventually adding an Urban Jurgensen Ref 8, 3 Royal Oaks (original with AP signature at 6, chronograph, and perpeutal calendar with platinum bezel) , a GP rattrapante with Venus movement, a Lange 1815, and more still, before I would sell off all my non-VC watches delved exclusively into the world of VC, adding vintage and current watches at an alarmning pace until I eventually would have 31 Vacheron in my collection.

I would eventually blow up that collection to fund a tourbillon that has still yet to arrive, but this Overseas is one watch that I intend to keep forever. For one, it was my first VC, and the brand means a lot to me. Also, it is limited, and so it is a little more interesting than many other watches. Finally, I have tried quite a few other watches on bracelets, including the original Overseas Chronograph, the new Overseas Automatic, a Rolex Sea-Dweller, GMT Master II with ceramic bezel, Milguass, IWC UTC and Ingenieur. None of them have dethroned my Overseas as my favorite bracelet watch.

What I like about my Overseas first and foremost is the way it looks and feels on my wrist. I like the thinness of the watch, even in this day of oversized watches. The head being not much thicker than the bracelet appeals a lot to me. This also gives the watch good balance on the wrist, which I find not to be true of such large watches as the Sea-Dweller and the Ingenieur. The interlocking brick links on the bracelet look good to my eyes and are very nicely finished with contrasting polished and satin finishing. I like that the bracelet on the Overseas tapers less toward the buckle than on Rolex and Royal Oak watches. A touch on the caseback appeals to me very much: it is shaped like the bezel, something lost on the new style Overseas.



An oft-heard complaint about the bracelet on the old style Overseas is that the links sometimes will lock in a kinked position. This has been true for me, though it is fixed easily.

So, my fellow forumers, what was your first VC? Do you still have it? Did you ever buy another one? Do you want to?

Bill