Reviews
Introducing the Vacheron Constantin Historiques Triple Calendrier 1942 & 1948
Reviews
Introducing the Vacheron Constantin Historiques Triple Calendrier 1942 & 1948
Two days ago, Revolution USA’s editor-in-chief, Keith W. Strandberg was with Vacheron Constantin’s artistic director, Christian Selmoni, who explained the Cornes de Vache saying, “Normally, every couple of years we choose watches from our heritage to be rethought and redesigned. We have built up this [Historiques] collection with simple models with a lot of character in design, like the American 1921.
“Then we came with more complicated pieces, like the Cornes de Vache chronograph. We have great stories when we speak of calendar watches, and we had several ones that we wanted to do, like the ones with triple gadroon case (a case with parallel rounded strips).”
Truth be told, while the 2015 Cornes de Vache is inspired by a historic timepiece from the Vacheron Constantin archives, much was done to it — with graceful subtlety — that’s lead the new version to hold its own ground. Read Wei Koh’s words in having discovered this little-known bit of brilliance and the young lady responsible for the reinterpretation, here.
The 4240 was a triple calendar watch that is said to have played a huge part in cementing Vacheron Constantin’s name as a horological powerhouse in that that time frame. Their chronograph masterpieces played a big part too. Particularly, the 4240 had this case that was from the sides, like three rings stacked on top of each other, or rather the proper term for the case was: The triple gadroon case.
But, hang on now, why would Christian talk about such a specific case type, from such a specific time period in Vacheron Constantin’s 262 years of existence? The reason we later discovered is that the maison was about to announce two additions to their Historiques collection, which take inspiration directly from the 4240 and its younger sibling, the 4240L.
Once the cat was out of the bag, Christian went on to introduce the watches further to Keith, saying: “These are very classic with a twist, which is the triple gadroon. It looks like it’s easy to recreate watches from the past, but I think it is very tricky. On the one side, you have to be faithful to the original, but you have to careful not to make it an exact replica of the past.
“They [the new calendriers] are bigger, 40mm up from 35mm, but we have been careful to honor the heritage. The complete calendars come with new manual movements, which are similar to what the originals were powered by. We have also kept the vintage nature of the timepieces, but reworked them to be contemporary in terms of dimensions, waterproofness and precision.”
Again, Christian explained the watch to Keith saying, “We have this great model, the American 1921, and we thought it was time to think about a smaller version of this watch. We tried many different size variations and we went with the 36.5mm, which we thought was a great dimension for this watch that — very importantly — retains the effect it should have when worn on the wrist.
We really did try many different variations, from 38mm down to 34mm, down from the original size, which is 40mm. The size we settled on, 36.5mm, is in the middle of what is termed to be masculine and feminine sized watches, and it doesn’t look like a small watch. Best part is that as a result of the size that worked out in this exercise, we were able to maintain the use of the same caliber that is in the 40mm watch. Had we gone to all the way down to 34mm, we would have had to built completely new movements for the watch.”
From pictures, the Historiques Triple calendrier 1942 and 1948 look extremely promising, but — dammit — there were no caseback images provided in the press pack. But Poinçon de Genève movements from Vacheron Constantin can’t disappoint!
More to come on these new Historiques timepieces on www.Revolution.Watch, very soon.
Technical Specifications
Historiques Triple calendrier 1942 (red accents, ref. 3110V/000A-B425; blue accents, ref. 3110V/000A-B426)
Movement
Manual winding caliber 4400 QC; Hallmark of Geneva certified; hours and minutes; day of the week and month by apertures; date by central hand; 65-hour power reserve
Case
40mm stainless steel; water-resistant to 30m
Strap
Mississippi alligator leather with alligator inner shell, hand-stitched, saddle-finish, large square scales with polished half Maltese cross-shaped buckle
Price: CHF20,296 (SGD28,600)
Historiques Triple calendrier 1948 red accents, ref. 3100V/000R-B359; blue accents, ref. 3100V/000R-B422)
Movement
Manual winding caliber 4400 QCL; Hallmark of Geneva certified; hours and minutes; day of the week and month by apertures; date by central hand; moonphase indicator; 65-hour power reserve
Case
40mm 18K 4N pink gold; water-resistant to 30m
Strap
Mississippi alligator leather with alligator inner shell, hand-stitched, saddle-finish, large square scales with polished half Maltese cross-shaped buckle
Price: CHF36,405 (SGD51,300)
Historiques American 1921 small model (ref. 1100S/000R-B430)
Movement
Manual winding caliber 4400 AS; Hallmark of Geneva certified; hours and minutes; small seconds; 65-hour power reserve
Case
36.5mm 18K 4N pink gold; water-resistant to 30m
Strap
Brown Mississippi alligator leather with alligator inner shell, hand-stitched, saddle-finish, large square scales with polished half Maltese cross-shaped buckle; delivered with an alternate red leather strap of the same specifications
Price: CHF30,373 (SGD42,800)