{"title":"Vacheron Constantin","description":"Vacheron Constantin pocket watches, from the oldest watchmaker in continuous production in Geneva. Enamel-dial gold and steel and the observatory-grade Chronometre Royal, each researched, checked and confirmed running.","products":[{"product_id":"white-enamel-breguet-dial-in-solid-18ct-gold-c-1913","title":"White Enamel Breguet Dial in Solid 18ct Gold, c.1913","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eA genuine Vacheron \u0026amp; Constantin in solid 18ct gold, triple-signed and in perfect running order. White enamel dial, Breguet numerals, c.1913.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA full-size Belle Époque Vacheron \u0026amp; Constantin: 48.9mm of solid 18ct yellow gold, 78.7 grams of watch, made in Geneva around 1913 and sold new by J. Neubauer of Verviers, a jeweller in the prosperous Belgian textile town, in the last years before the First World War. The retailer's name is still engraved inside, next to the maker's; between the two of them, the watch carries both its maker and the shop counter it first crossed.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe dial is the heart of it. White enamel with black Breguet-style Arabic numerals and a sub-seconds register at six, it is clean and bright with no chips and no hairline cracks. Enamel of this age has usually collected damage somewhere along the way; this one has come through more than a century whole, under slim gold baton hands.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe case matches it: bright polish, crisp bezel and edges, the caseback and inner cuvette both closing with a firm, precise snap. Behind them the frosted gilt keyless lever movement winds smoothly, sets cleanly and runs well.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWeight is part of the pleasure of this watch. At nearly 79 grams it announces the metal every time it is picked up: a full-size dress watch from the age when Geneva's oldest house made them without economy.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe marks, the movement and the condition are set out piece by piece in the drawers below; the three signatures and the retailer's mark are recorded in The Record.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Vacheron \u0026amp; Constantin","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":54467171385683,"sku":"PW-0117","price":0.0,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1080\/3121\/3907\/files\/vacheron-constantin-18k-yellow-gold-pocket-watch-1_hero.jpg?v=1785676557"},{"product_id":"chronometre-royal-18ct-gold-with-a-sunburst-caseback-c-1913","title":"Chronomètre Royal, 18ct Gold with a Sunburst Caseback, c.1913","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eVacheron \u0026amp; Constantin's observatory-grade precision watch: a large Chronomètre Royal in solid 18ct gold, entirely original, its caseback never once engraved.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA Chronomètre Royal was Vacheron's precision instrument rather than its jewellery, and everything about this one says so. It is a large watch, 56.4mm in solid 18ct gold, the size the period trade sold as a Goliath, with real weight in the hand. Yet the design is quiet: a plain polished bezel around the dial, and all of the case's decoration saved for the back, a single field of engine-turned sunburst radiating from an oval cartouche at its lower edge. That cartouche was put there for a monogram, and in more than a hundred years nobody ever cut one into it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe white enamel dial is deep and glassy, with black Roman numerals, a fine outer minute track and subsidiary seconds at six, the maker's signature in small black script across the centre. It is free of hairlines, chips and restoration; enamel of this age rarely comes through unmarked, and this one has. Gold poire hands with a matching gilt seconds hand, original to the watch.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eInside, the gilded movement sits beneath a solid gold cuvette, hand-engraved with the maker's name, so that dial, movement and cover all speak with one voice. Everything the watch left Geneva with is still here, matching and unrestored: nothing swapped, nothing polished away, nothing added in the century between. It winds, sets and runs as it should.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFew of the large gold examples survive with the enamel whole and every signature in place, and they are the ones that rarely come to market intact. This one has been kept, plainly and well, the entire time.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe marks, the movement and the condition are set out piece by piece in the drawers below; the three signatures are recorded in The Record.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Vacheron \u0026 Constantin","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":54589116318035,"sku":"PW-0123","price":0.0,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1080\/3121\/3907\/files\/vacheron-constantin-18ct-solid-gold-with-signed-18ct-gold-cuvette-pocket-watch-6_hero_e64cb598-51eb-433e-b27c-da10d8929fe8.jpg?v=1786743313"},{"product_id":"open-face-in-stainless-steel-guilloche-sub-seconds-c-1933","title":"Open Face in Stainless Steel, Guilloché Sub-Seconds, c.1933","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eA Vacheron \u0026amp; Constantin in stainless steel from 1933, at a time when the house made almost everything in gold or silver. Two-tone sector dial, rose gold figures, rose gold hands. Running well.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e1933 was the height of the Art Deco decade, and this watch is a thoroughly 1933 object. Steel, not silver: harder, colder, brighter, the material of aircraft and architecture rather than of the jewellery trade. Choosing it for a watch from Geneva's oldest house was a modernist statement, and the piece wears it plainly, a 47mm open face with a clean line and no ornament anywhere on the outside.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe face makes the argument. It is a two-tone sector dial, a matte cream centre inside a silvered outer track, the layout the modernist thirties made its own. The hour markings alternate, rose gold Arabic figures at the even hours and slim rose gold batons between them, matched by the rose gold hands and even the winding crown, one warm note repeated against the white and the steel. The sub-seconds at six carries a raised centre disc with a soft sunray finish. Under close light the surface shows the light, even mottling of ninety years, with figures and printing clear throughout; nothing has been restored.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAt 63.9 grams the watch is substantial in the hand, and the steel has aged the way the material promises to: no tarnish, no creeping patina, the original finish still present with its lustre. The crown winds and sets cleanly, the snap back opens without resistance, and it runs well.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNinety years later, the tension this watch was born into, between tradition and modernity, between the oldest house in Geneva and the newest material in the workshop, reads as clearly as it did in 1933. It has simply been kept, in good working order, all this time.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe marks, the movement and the condition are set out piece by piece in the drawers below; the three signatures and serials are recorded in The Record.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Vacheron \u0026 Constantin","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":54591950061907,"sku":"PW-0128","price":0.0,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1080\/3121\/3907\/files\/vacheron-constantin-stainless-steel-pocket-watch-1_hero.jpg?v=1786755849"},{"product_id":"18ct-gold-open-face-triple-signed-throughout-c-1945","title":"18ct Gold Open Face, Triple-Signed Throughout, c.1945","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eGeneva's oldest great house, signed three times over on the dial, the movement and the case back: an 18k gold Vacheron \u0026amp; Constantin of 1945 with a clean champagne dial, running well.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis watch dates to around 1945, the years just after the Second World War, when demand for fine Swiss dress watches was recovering across Europe and America and Vacheron was making pieces like this one: quiet, correct, and built to be kept. At 46.9mm in solid 18k gold it sits at the larger end of the mid-century gentleman's watch, substantial in the hand, with a plain polished case and nothing on the outside to announce itself.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe champagne lacquered dial uses the mixed layout the house favoured in this period: Arabic numerals at the quarters and faceted dart markers between them, applied in white metal so they read cool against the warm ground, with slim gold baton hands and a sub-seconds register at six. The surface is clean throughout, with no lifting at the chapter ring, and the hands are original.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe best detail is out of sight. Inside the caseback the gold is engine-turned in clous de Paris, sharp and unmarked, a finish spent on a surface only the owner ever sees. It is the kind of decision that tells you how the watch was made: as a complete, unified object, signed by the maker wherever a signature could go, not assembled from parts and named on the dial alone.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEighty years on, it has come through with the case true, the dial clean and the movement running. It winds smoothly, sets without resistance and runs well. No box or papers accompany it, which is usual for a watch of this age; the watch itself is in unusually good order.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe marks, the movement and the condition are set out piece by piece in the drawers below; the three signatures are recorded in The Record.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Vacheron \u0026 Constantin","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":54591950094675,"sku":"PW-0125","price":0.0,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1080\/3121\/3907\/files\/vacheron-constantin-18k-yellow-gold-pocket-watch-1_hero_a7600270-d6c4-49e5-926f-b5b204e5102d.jpg?v=1786755125"}],"url":"https:\/\/estatecollection.nl\/collections\/shop-by-maker-vacheron-constantin.oembed","provider":"The Estate Collection","version":"1.0","type":"link"}