Vacheron Constantin

WHL
[VC Moderator]
4922

• Show profile
• Show other posts

Vacheron Constantin 2011 Watch Year in Review

As we close out the 2011 calendar year and start looking forward to the novelties that will be presented in Geneva in just a few week’s time, let’s look back at all the new watches that Vacheron Constantin brought out this past year.

The 2011 watch year got off to a great start in late 2010 when Vacheron Constantin introduced the Quai de l’Ile Annual Calendar:

This is the first time that Vacheron Constantin has attempted this particular complication, and they brought to it the added novelty of a retrograding date display. It also introduced solid dials to the Quai de l’Ile collection, and we now have such options for the previously developed Date and Day-Date-Power Reserve models:

At SIHH, Vacheron Constantin put together a set of watches that beautifully extended their core lines. The highlight of the show was the Patrimony Traditionnelle World Time watch, bringing a beautiful and technically interesting twist to the classic world time watch. This watch can account for the time zones that are offset either 15 or 30 minutes away from the GMT standard, and all setting is handled through the crown.

The Patrimony Contemporaine line how has a perpetual calendar, with a classical four subdial layout:

Finally, the Historiques collection was augmented with the stunning Aronde 1954:

Throughout the course of the year, Vacheron Constantin will bring out interesting watches that are not featured at SIHH. With the opening of their New York Boutique this year, Vacheron Constantin came up with two interesting variants on watches from its collection. One was the Historiques American 1921, with a dial inspired by that of one of the vintage originals:

And the other was the Patrimony Traditionnelle Calibre 2755, with Tourbillon, Minute repeater, and Perpetual calendar, with a specially engraved case that echoes the design of the building at 64^th and Madison, where the boutique is located:

There is also a new boutique exclusive Overseas with Chronograph and Perpetual Calendar. For all the VC boutiques in the world, there is a grey dial version with titanium bezel,

And the NY boutique gets a special design featuring the red, white, and blue of the American flag;

Other variations of the Overseas this year were the new rose gold automatic model:

And one for ladies, coming in at 35 mm:

And speaking of ladies watches, there were two new dress watches, the Patrimony Contemporaine Small model, with diamonds set around the side of the case:

And the Malte Small Model, with diamond set bezel and a guilloche dial that recalls the Maltese Cross:

Both of these watches use the in-house manual winding caliber 1400.

The entry in Excellence Platine collection was the Patrimony Contemporaine Self Winding, the fourth EP watch since 2006 to be based on the Contemporaine design after the original Patrimony Contemporaine (40 mm), the Patrimony Contemporaine Retrograding Day and Date (42.5 mm), and the Patrimony Contemporaine Pocket Watch (43 mm). This watch features a 42mm case and the self winding Calibre 1120, now employing the Gyromax balance:

It is limited to 150 pieces.

And like with the announcement of the Quai de l’Ile Annual Calendar last year, Vacheron Constantin gave us a preview of a watch that will be shown at SIHH in January 2012, the Patrimony Traditionnelle Tourbillon Calibre 2260.

2011 was a great year for Vacheron Constantin. I can’t wait to see what’s in store for 2012!

Happy New Year!

Bill Lind

VC Forum Moderator