VacHEROn cOnsTanTin

wHEn onE movEmEnT TakEs Two

Mathilde Binetruy

Blue or pink? To cut loose from the idea of making a choice (and from gendered education), nothing could be better than watchmaking. Some brands like Vacheron Constantin now propose women’s lines in two colours like the new Traditionnelle Perpetual Calendar Ultra-Thin. Oh wHiTE gold or pink gold? what an incredibly brilliant idea to propose non-binary references. For two reasons, basically. First, the THE HardEsT THing will bE cHoosing bETwEEn concept is highly-inclusive. Secondly, THE Two 36.5 mm sTonE-sET this time round, it’s accompanied vErsions. by a high-profile calibre and addresses feminine customers’ desire for complications. Well, it makes you want to wrap this little gem around your wrist immediately, because when so much care has been put into details, reading time becomes child’s play. Thanks to the large dial opening, calendar displays are clear: weekday, date, month, leap years (and doesn’t require adjustment before 2100). Impossible to be “Lost in Translation” when you wear it. On the case side, we discover the characteristic simplicity of the collection enhanced with a few particularities like the lugs and the layered architecture, the fluted caseback, the Dauphine-shaped hands hovering over a railway-style minute tracker interspersed with baton indexes. Everything mentioned above is shared by both pieces. When you play ‘Find the Differences’, you notice a 5N 18K gold case, one white, the other pink. The mother-of-pearl dial veers towards grey-blue hues, or goes for immaculate white, whilst the Moon and the stars are portrayed with the same tone of gold as the case and boast an opaline finish. For a dash of glamour, the bezel and the top of the lugs are set with 76 round-cut diamonds.

glamour, HigH-TEcH, THE fEaTurEs a woman’s waTcH sHould HavE Today. oH, and diamonds Too!

Mixing carats and a mechanical movement is a bit like when you collaborate, you’ve got to find the right partner. To breathe life into the watch’s heart, Vacheron Constantin opted for the manufacture 1120 QP calibre. Perfect choice! It infuses an elegant slant into the particularities of the Gregorian calendar by adding the Moon phase display at 6 o’clock. Another distinction: its slimness. It stands just 4.05 mm thick and nestles in an 8.43 mm-high, 36.5 mm-diameter case. It goes without saying that you can just sense Vacheron Constantin’s legitimacy beneath the previous statement as the brand has been an expert in ultra-slim movements since the 1950s via a host of records. But, there’s more to come. When you turn the piece over, the feast-forthe-eyes makes you go “Wowwww!”. The 276 components visible through the sapphire-crystal caseback epitomize the amount of work involved in such a masterpiece: the baseplate is circulargrained dial-side, chamfering is done by hand, drilling is circular satin-brushed, the gear train features polished teeth, the oscillating weight is decorated with Côtes de Genève then openworked in the shape of a Maltese Cross (the brand’s emblem), amongst other things. Ah, one last thing, the strap of this PC is interchangeable in one click for the first time ever. No doubt about it, it illustrates the brand’s 2022 theme entitled “The Anatomy of Beauty®” marvellously well.