Vacheron Constantin, Genève

AN EXCEPTIONALLY FINE AND RARE PLATINUM OPEN-FACED TRIPLE CALENDAR KEYLESS LEVER WATCH WITH MOON PHASES AND POWER RESERVE 1929, MOVEMENT NO. 412792, CASE NO. 256481

• Movement: 17''' damascened, lever escapement, 18 jewels, bi-metallic compensation balance, signed Vacheron & Constantin, no.412792
• Dial: silvered, applied Breguet numerals, pearled outer minute ring, subsidiary seconds, long aperture for day/date/month, further aperture for moon-phases with gold and blue enamel disc, combined with sector for power reserve, signed Vacheron Constantin Genève Suisse
• Case: platinum, satin finished case back and band, the bezels with flat upper and scooped sides, signed Vacheron & Constantin, Switzerland and numbered 256481

43 mm. diameter

Provenance:
Accompanied by an Extract from the Vacheron Constantin Archives confirming date of manufacture in 1929.

This exceptional platinum pocket watch has a most unusual and attractive dial layout. Archive photographs demonstrate Vacheron Constantin’s experimentation with a variety of calendar displays, especially during the 1920s and 1930s when the popularity of the slim dress watch was at its height. The use of apertures rather than subsidiary dials to display the calendar is ideally suited to the refined slim dress watch style which might otherwise be overwhelmed by the addition of multiple subsidiary dials. This watch’s linear, single aperture calendar indication is highly legible and enhances the overall symmetry of design. The under-dial of the watch illustrates the superior finish of the movement and the extreme precision with which the calendar has been executed: the date wheel has been taken almost to the edge of the centre arbor and subsidiary seconds arbor, thereby ensuring that the calendar is displayed to the maximum available size. The addition of the power reserve sector to the edge of the moon-phase aperture adds another layer of complexity and rarity to this watch.

A pair of very similar watches with almost identical dial layouts are illustrated in: Lambelet, C. & Coen, L., The World of Vacheron Constantin, Editions Scriptar SA/Vacheron Constantin, pp.384 and 385 (illustration numbers 3067 & 3095). A similar example was sold in Sotheby's Geneva on 14 May 2014, lot 211.