Auctions - My Country Lore
Usually, September isn't the most exciting month of the year for watch collectors and lovers of fine horology. Following the summer break, business resumes at a rather slow pace, and there are no worthy international shows or auctions. This year, however, the month of September was a particularly "sunny month" for watch aficionados, making me think of an old Swiss German country lore that says "If September is mild and sunny, it is a blessing for the remainder of the year". Or something of the sort.
The sunniest day of the month was September 17th when Vacheron Constantin presented the world's most complicated pocket watch ever built, known as reference 57260. Enough has been written by historians, watchmakers, marketing specialists and story-tellers that I do not need to repeat how utterly impressive it is and, despite its massive dimensions, how actually very beautiful in appearance. Instead, I want to share with you what thoughts and feelings first came to my mind, months ago, when I was given the privilege to discover what was then still called project "Tivoli". And, what the impact is on watch collecting as a whole.
Firstly, it is my sincere desire to extend my congratulations. Certainly, my deepest respect goes out to the anonymous collector who joined forces with Vacheron Constantin's management and team of skilled watchmakers to embark on a nearly decade-long journey. How many of us can wholeheartedly say that they have once in their life agreed to wait nearly a decade until a product was completed and delivered to them? We may wait a few months for a bespoke suit, a piece of jewellery or a work of art. Maybe even more than a year for a house to be completed. But over eight years? Such achievements are only possible if the project is not considered a project, but a mission. And it fills me with immense joy that there is a distinguished collector out there and an important manufacturer who together wrote horological history by considering it as such.
Secondly, the creation of reference 57260 shows that watches, or rather, handmade mechanical watches, are not (only) loved for their practical value but are, more importantly, considered works of art, worthy of being exhibited alongside fine paintings, sculptures, extraordinary furniture and historical motor cars.
Thirdly, the genesis of this super complication reminds me of how the world's greatest watches were built in the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries. The competitive circumstances of their original owners add to the overall mystique that surrounds these treasures. Reference 57260 is now joining the ranks of other historical pieces made by the most distinguished European watch manufacturers, no matter whether they were (or still are) based in London, Paris, Glashutte, le Brassus or Geneva.
Only five days later, on September 22nd to be precise, one of the finest collectors' watches in existence was offered at auction. The unique and historically important "Churchill Victory Watch", manufactured by Louis Cottier and Agassiz & Co., was presented around Christmas in 1945 to Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
If you ask 100 collectors the reason why they are passionate about watches, their answers will fall anywhere in a spectrum ranging from the fascination for engineering, the craftsmanship, the finishing, the design and the functionality, to the exclusivity and the prestige. When asking a collector of vintage watches, an entirely new dimension emerges, as factors such as time and history make the scene. This brings the watch to a completely new level of emotional gravitas and, given the smaller output in the past, a new degree of rarity.
The "Churchill Victory Watch" could compete in any "Olympic" discipline of watchmaking. Entirely handmade, it pleases collectors of complex mechanisms thanks to its ingenious world time mechanism invented by Louis Cottier. At the same time, it ticks every box for those who are looking for the aesthetically captivating, artistic and even unique appearance. The enamel dial made by Maison Stern is an incredible work of art and the inner dial disc alone is easily worth the equivalent of a semidetached house. But the discipline where this watch can hardly be beaten is when it comes to historical meaningfulness and provenance. Hardly any moment in the 20th century has been of such significance to the further development of our entire planet than the victory achieved by the allied forces against the Nazi regime. Moreover, no one shaped this victory as much as the four allied leaders, namely President Truman, General de Gaulle, Marshall Stalin and Prime Minister Churchill. These four leaders each received in December of 1945 a uniquely finished world time watch as a token of esteem and gratitude from a group of citizens from Geneva.
The list of superlatives for this timepiece can hardly be matched. Consequently, I was little surprised when the slightly humorous (conservative!) pre-sale estimate was so quickly surpassed. Selling for close to half a million pounds, this historical collectors' watch brought yet another day of sunshine to the month of September.
So, if there is any truth in the Swiss German farmers' foresight, then the world of watch collectors can look forward to an enjoyable horological autumn season, overall serene and blessed with sunshine with good winds. Personally, I think the farmers may actually have been right.
Vacheron Constantin - Patrimony Contemporaine Ultra-Thin Calibre 1731
Few watchmakers truly master the art of striking mechanisms, the horological complications acknowledged to be the hardest of all to produce. Vacheron Constantin has been creating such miniature pieces for over two centuries, and is now presenting the Patrimony Contemporaine Ultra-Thin Calibre 1731, bearing the prestigious Hallmark of Geneva. It is the thinnest minute repeater calibre and the thinnest minute repeater watch on the market with just 3.90 and 8.09 mm thin respectively.
It was in the 18th century that the first minute repeater watch was devised to provide an audible indication of the time in the dark, in an era before the advent of electric lighting. Each miniature repeater watch is unique and bears the unique signature of the master craftsman who made it. On demand, the minute repeater sounds the hours, quarter-hours and minutes. After activating the repeater slide - in this case the only element of this major complication visible on the dial side - a hammer strikes the low-pitched gong to mark the hours, while the quarters are played by two hammers on the two gongs - one low-pitched and the other high-pitched - and the minutes are sounded on the high-pitched gong.
The Manufacture made its first minute repeater on a pocket-watch in 1810, before combining striking mechanisms with major complications throughout the following decades. Watches that have made history, such as the one developed for King Fouad of Egypt in 1929, or the timepiece created in 1935 for his son, King Farouk. In 1941, Vacheron Constantin launched its first wristwatch equipped with a single complication in the shape of a minute repeater housed within an ultra-thin movement: Calibre 4261. The quest for extreme slenderness continued over the years, and in 1992, the Manufacture presented Calibre 1755, a minute repeater measuring just 3.28 mm thick. Today, Vacheron Constantin celebrates this emotionally charged complication with an all-new calibre inspired by its illustrious predecessors: 1731, thus named in tribute to the birth of the brand founder, Jean-Marc Vacheron.
Calibre 1731
It was in 2009 that Vacheron Constantin decided to create a new minute repeater. Four years proved necessary to solve this complex equation. While the new Calibre 1731 is barely thicker than its predecessor from 1993 - 3.90 compared with 3.28 mm - due to its impressive 65-hour power reserve, it is nonetheless the thinnest on the market today.
Nor are the technical feats confined to the ultra-thin side of its nature, since Calibre 1731 is equipped with a highly ingenious device developed by Vacheron Constantin in 2007 for the 2755 movement: a flying strike governor. Contrary to classic lever-type governors, this one is completely silent. Its role is to steady the rate at which the hammers strike the gongs. Without a regulator or governor, this musical sequence would take place at the speed of the striking barrel-spring, and would merely produce a rush of indiscernible notes.
The device developed by Vacheron Constantin comprises two inertia-blocks or weights designed to act as a brake on the rotating shaft of the governor and thus evening out the energy supplied by the barrel spring. To achieve this, it makes use of two opposing centrifugal and centripetal forces. When the governor spins, the centrifugal force pivots one end of the weights outwards so that the other end presses on the shaft so as to stabilise the rotation speed and thus ensure a steady cadence. The governor bears Vacheron Constantin's Maltese Cross emblem.
The quest for perfect harmony
Particular care was devoted to the acoustics of the Patrimony Contemporaine Ultra-Thin Calibre 1731. The gongs are not only connected to the case middle to as to amplify the sound, but also for the first time stacked rather than placed side by side. The case is made to be as one with the movement, within a clever composition incorporating such subtle parameters as the airflow between the mechanism and the case, designed to achieve optimal propagation of the sound. The case itself has been built without joints so that the elements can interact literally metal against metal and thus enhance the amplitude of the sound, while the flying governor ensures a steady rate of the hammer blows on the gongs.
While each master-watchmaker instils his own music into the minute repeater that he will take several months to assemble and fine-tune, the sound of the movement will be subjected to the keen ear of the virtuoso striking mechanism specialists within the Manufacture. And it is at precisely 4:49 that the tests are performed, since that is the time when the cadence is the most clearly audible due to the almost identical intervals between the hours (4 strikes), quarters (3 strikes) and minutes (4 strikes).
The true soul of a repeater watch, the individual chime of each watch is recorded and carefully stored before it leaves the Manufacture, thus constituting a "soundprint" duly registered in the Vacheron Constantin archives. This procedure guarantees not only the lifelong repair of all its timepieces, both historical and contemporary, but also the ability to restore within its workshops the unique sound of each model equipped with a minute repeater.
The work of a single master-watchmaker
For a master-watchmaker, taking part in creating striking watches is a supreme honour. Watchmakers capable of mastering striking mechanisms thus belong to an extremely elite circle. At Vacheron Constantin, only the master craftsmen working in the "Grandes Complication" workshop create such marvels. They must have acquired at least 15 years' experience in the various other workshops, before working for two years under the mentorship of a master. The minute repeater is the most demanding complication due to the large number of tiny parts that must be patiently assembled and made to interact, before repeatedly setting and adjusting them to the point of achieving perfectly smooth running and an absolutely pure sound. A single watch takes from three to six months to assemble and adjust.
Finishes in keeping with the noblest Fine Watchmaking traditions
The components of Calibre 1731 are patiently finished one by one, even though some will remain hidden. Whereas the mainplate is circular-grained, the hammers are specular polished. The bridges are enlivened with a Côtes de Geneve pattern. The seven bridges of Calibre 1731 are bevelled.
The design of the Patrimony Contemporaine Ultra-Thin Calibre 1731 is inspired by an ultra-thin model created in 1955 to mark the Vacheron Constantin bicentenary and then revived in 2004 to give life to the Patrimony Contemporaine, reference 81180. Since then, its extreme slenderness, its pebble shape, its curved bezel, its cambered dial and crystal, its beaded minute circle, along with its baton-shaped hands sweeping over alternating triangle and baton-shaped hour-markers, have firmly established it as a timeless classic.
While the new Patrimony Contemporaine Ultra-Thin Calibre 1731 has remained loyal to its timeless design codes, its case has been the object of subtle and complex workmanship so as to form a unified whole with Calibre 1731. The curve of the case middle has been accentuated so as to trim down the silhouette, while the sapphire crystal case-back has been opened as broadly as possible so as to reveal the hammers, along with a rare glimpse of the gongs. On the dial, the small seconds offset is positioned at 8 o'clock, a first in the Patrimony Contemporaine line.
[Rating: 5 / 5 stars]
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