Weekly Watch Photo – Vacheron Constantin Wristshots from the Hour Lounge
Another week, another Weekly Watch Photo here at Monochrome. A while ago Alex Ghotbi, community manager of Vacheron Constantin’s “in-house” forum, started the Friday “what’s on your wrist” post by showing the Overseas Chronograph with blue dial (click here for our hands-on report) on his wrist. I liked that photo a lot and yesterday I browsed through the Hour Lounge to search for more beautiful wrist shots of the Overseas Chrono and ended up with some entirely different photos.
While I was actually searching for photos of the sporty and casual Overseas, I saw a photo of the Historique American 1921 and I like this model so much. The search went on, but I noticed that my focus was changed and thus I selected other photos, not of the sports watch that the Overseas is, but photos of stylish, refined and even elegant dress watches. No wonder, actually, because that’s exactly what we can expect from Vacheron Constantin. Together with Patek Philippe and AP, Vacheron Constantin is regarded as one of the three grand dames of Haute Horlogerie. When you look at VC’s collection, you notice that they mainly produce dress watches and complicated watches, just like they have been doing for the past 258 year.
And although Vacheron Constantin do offer the Overseas as the sporty option, the majority of the collection radiates style, class and elegance of a timeless beauty. While one of the other grand dames is dangerously close to being synonymous with a ‘majestic tree’, the other is known for a rather diverse mix of sporty watches, dress watches and extremely complicated timepieces.
That classic, refined and stylish imago perfectly suits with the brands and breathes through everything they do. That being said, the photos that caught my attention showed this dandy-like classic style that is rather rare. Most brands have a wealth of round wrist watches, but Vacheron Constantin has a good number of odd-shaped timepieces in the collection. For instance the Amrican 1921 from the Historique collection. A timepiece we’ve shown you before (see here) and that we got to show you one of the few original models from the twenties (see here and here).
Another odd-shaped timepiece is the 1972 Prestige and in the photo above shows the Boutique Edition. Both the Boutique Edition and the ‘normal’ edition (see photo below) were introduced for the opening of the VC Boutique in Paris at 2 Rue de la Paix. Early this year we told you about these models and of course we shared all specifications (see here).
What also might be interesting is Alex Ghotbi’s review of the 1972 Prestige that he published on the Hour Lounge. His review contains interesting historical facts and many photos of what might be one of the most typical Vacheron Constantin timepieces. See here for the review and lots of photos.
To show that Vacheron Constantin not only creates odd-shaped watch cases, let me show you the Patrimony Traditionnelle Small Seconds. This model was already in the collection, however earlier this year Vacheron Constantin introduced the platinum version with a stylish grey dial. The platinum case measures a discrete 38 mm in diameter and 7.90 mm in height.
Inside ticks the in-house caliber 4400AS, which has the Geneva Seal of quality, that delivers a comfortable 65 hours of power reserve when fully wound. In silence it SCREAMS understated elegance, and that’s exactly the image we have of this prestigious watch brand, that is also one of the oldest watch companies in the world.
One last photo of the beautiful Patrimony Traditionnelle Small Seconds in platinum…
Many thanks to Alex and the member of the Hour Lounge for letting me use their photos. To enjoy more of Vacheron Constantin, you can visit the Hour Lounge, or, if you’re the proud owner of a Vacheron Constantin timepiece, you can become a member of the Hour Club! Click here to visit the Hour Club and Hour Lounge.
2 responses
I must say that the luxury sports watch segment has been ruled by the AP royal oak & Patek Nautilus for a long time now, & quite rightly so. The Vacheron overseas IMHO has been a disaster, they should have never tried to compete with the nautilus & royal oak. The overseas can be found in many AD’s showrooms gathering dust. Vacheron should stick to what they do best & continue producing top notch dress pieces of which IMHO again they are the best of the big 3.
That American is mounted upside down on the wearer wrist 🙂