Some anniversaries call for fireworks. For Vacheron Constantin, it is through years of workmanship reflected in their watches; at 270 years old, there's still plenty of tricks left in this old dog. Celebrating this extraordinary milestone, the world’s oldest watch Maison unveils limited editions from its Traditionelle and Patrimony collections as well as other timepieces at this year's Watches and Wonders.
The Traditionelle and Patrimony watches are limited and are individually numbered on their casebacks. There are two unique traits that these novelties are getting. One, the updated Maltese Cross motif, which was inspired by the component used in old barrel mechanisms to ensure constant torque; the emblem is updated for Vacheron Constantin's anniversary and is etched onto each dial as a highlight of the Maison's symbol for precision. Two, a newly revived hand-crafted decoration called a côte unique finish. This is applied to a timepiece's case and it involves some hand-guilloché know-how; the result is an illusion of continuous lines flowing across the bridges with a satin-like finish.
As the name suggests, this collection is a love letter to the classical codes of Genevan Haute Horlogerie. Along with high technical standards, the collection have distinctive horological aesthetics like stepped lugs; a fluted caseback; a slender bezel; railway-type minutes track, faceted Dauphine-style hands and so on. These are modern watches with an old-world soul to them.
We start with the Traditionnelle Manual-Winding watch (limited to 370 pieces). A classic in a 38mm case that's either in a 950 platinum or 18K 5N pink gold. Inside, the manufacture Calibre 4400 AS/270 beats assuredly, offering 65 hours of power reserve and a small seconds dial at six o’clock.
There's the Traditionnelle Manual-Winding in 33mm; this pink gold showcase is limited to 270 pieces. With its Calibre 1440/270 measuring only 2.6mm thick, the soft pink hue of the dial, paired with a pink alligator strap, renders it quietly radical. If you're feeling a little romantic, there's the Traditionnelle Moon Phase in 36mm that's dressed in diamond-set pink gold and a mother-of-pearl dial. Limited to 270 pieces, its Calibre 1410 AS/270 moonphase complication has a deviation of just one day every 122 years.
Bringing back the minimalist aesthetics of the 1950s, the Patrimony collection is an elegant, ultra-thin dress watch. If a Traditionnelle timepiece is a reverent nod to baroque horological grandeur, a Patrimony is restraint and proportion; of balance, not bravado.
Offered in white and pink gold, the Patrimony Moon Phase Retrograde Date's beating heart is the Calibre 2460 R31L/270—a movement as elegant as its name is long. Retrograde date arcs gracefully across the dial and its balanced by a moonphase at six o'clock. Visible through the sapphire caseback, is where the côte unique finish meets an openworked 22K gold rotor.
For the purists, there is the Patrimony Self-Winding watch in pink or white gold. This is a 40mm masterclass in understatement. A Calibre 2450 Q6/270 with a central seconds hand and a discreet date aperture at six o’clock, as well as a stop-second system that promises optimal precision and perfect time-setting.
Vacheron Constantin's Les Cabinotiers workshop is replete with Swiss watchmakers who epitomise the pinnacle of horological artistry and technical mastery. The "cabinotiers" are the skilled 18th-century Geneva-based artisans known for their exceptional craftsmanship. It is this division that continues the tradition of bespoke watchmaking, offering collectors unparalleled personalisation and unparalleled complexity.
Les Cabinotiers unveiled three pièce unique pieces that tell time, as well as, tell Geneva’s story. The focus is on the Tour de l’Île (island tower), which is one-part fortress, one-part time capsule, and one-part symbolic bridge between past and present.
Called the Tribute to the Tour de l’Île range, it is a showcase of the métiers d’art virtuosity at Vacheron Constantin. The tower, reimagined from period illustrations and engraved prints, becomes a miniature monument on a dial no more than 33.6mm across, framed in a 40mm case.
For the Maison, the Tour de l’Île was where Vacheron Constantin established its workshops in 1843 before moving out in 1975. To commemorate their tenure are three Les Cabinotiers watches with the engraved motto—Post Tenebras Lux (“After Darkness, Light”)—on the officer-style caseback.
In each model, the tower is reimagined from period illustrations and engraved prints. It becomes a miniature monument cast in enamel, guilloché and gold on a dial no more than 33.6mm across, framed in a 40mm case.
The first watch—GrandFeu Enamel on Platinum—draws from a Jean DuBois' 18th-century lithograph and is now reborn in a soft-hued Grand Feu enamel. Unfolded over a month of pigments being laid layer by layer onto an 18K white gold dial, each fired at over 800°C; the pastels on this 950 platinum case are delicate, though the craftsmanship is anything but.
The second model plays with contrast and texture. Based on an early 20th-century illustration by Geneva’s Charnaux studio, the dial is crafted in 18K 5N gold. The cityscape is reduced to fine black guilloché lines—linear, geometric, and architectural—allowing the enamelled Tour de l’Île to command centre stage.
The final model embraces its sculptural side. Inspired by an 1822 engraving by Pierre Escuyer, the model’s dial is carved in bas-relief from solid pink gold. Each contour, each vanishing point, is etched by hand. Trees, towers, even the rooster on the weathervane—every detail is pulled from the gold in a feat of chiaroscuro engraving. Chiselling, satin-finishing, polishing: every surface has a texture, a tone. The dial alone took over 140 hours to complete. No shortcuts. No machines.
Tribute to the Tour de l’Île pieces are powered by the self-winding Calibre 2460 from Vacheron Constantin. Visible beneath a sapphire-backed officer case, you can see the perlage and Côtes de Genève on the bridges, a guilloché pink gold rotor, which bears the Geneva Seal, a rare stamp of origin and excellence.
Finally, the most difficult watch to construct among the lot. From Les Cabinotiers, comes the Solaria Ultra Gran Complication—La Première, a grand complication with 41 complications, 13 patent applications, and five never-before-seen astronomical functions.
Within a white gold 45mm case, is movement that is just 14.99mm thick; the Calibre 3655 movement has a civil, solar, and sidereal time, each with their own gear train. In writing this piece, research into the complication boggles my mind. To this day, I'm still flummoxed by how the movement works. It's a complication wrapped in a enigma, where it tells the position of the sun, its height, culmination, declination, and a world-first function that tracks the time until a specific star appears in your field of view. No joke—Vacheron Constantin built a split-seconds chronograph to predict stargazing.
On the dial, at 6 o’clock, an 18K gold Earth rotates among constellations, solstices, and equinoxes. Tiny cam wheels behind the scenes manage solar phenomena like the equation of time, sunrise/sunset, and even the angle of the sun above the horizon. It's like wearing a tiny orrery.
At 12 o’clock, a perpetual calendar displays the Gregorian date, ISO weeks, and leap years with clinical clarity. At 9 o'clock, the Moon phase dial reveals its age with 122 years of accuracy—plus spring and neap tides, just in case you’re about to embark for the high seas. At 3 o'clock, a second time zone with day/night indication, and a rotating world time disc that shows all 24 cities at once, aligned to GMT standard time.
For a complication like this, one crown doesn’t cut it. The watch has eight correctors, two pushers, two selectors, and a sliding lever just to handle its minute repeater.
Which brings us to the most absurdly humble part of the watch: the Westminster chime. Four hammers and four gongs sing the tune of Big Ben, in full carillon. Fitting a repeater inside a case packed with three separate time standards... my mind is still trying to wrap around that improbability but here we are.
For such a timepiece, it only comes in an edition of... one. there's only The hardest part wasn’t designing the movement. It was making it wearable. At just under 15mm tall and 45mm across, the Solaria is smaller than many “sporty” chronographs. But every micron was fought for.
Only one Solaria Ultra Grand Complication—La Première exists. That's it. Because of such a high watermark, all effort, blood and sweat, is put into this, like an offering for a Faustian deal never to be repeated ever again. Good luck trying to find this on the secondary market.
For more information, visit Vacheron Constantin website
