We attended the 270th Anniversary celebration of Vacheron Constantin, held in Paris and Geneva mid-week, and witnessed the launch of the clock objet d’art La Quête du Temps as well as the wristwatch Métiers d’art Tribute to the Quest of Time.
Technical Briefing: Vacheron Constantin Métiers d’art Tribute to the Quest of Time
The event began in Paris at the Louvre Museum, where VC unveiled the La Quête du Temps, a large objet d’art which is also a mechanical marvel. It is displayed at the museum for public display.
This clock is a tribute to the Maison’s legacy seven years in the making. Tjhe object explores the intimate connections between time, the cosmos and human ingenuity, building on a tradition that goes back to Antiquity.
This endeavour also inspired the new Métiers d’Art Tribute to the Quest of Time, a double-sided wristwatch that translates the ambitions of La Quête du Temps into a wearable format. Our commentary and press release details are found here.
My additional comment after seeing and handling the watch in person is that this is a magnificent statement piece, made by VC. And every bit shows off the capabilities of the maison in complicated mechanisms, in the métiers d’art, and the excellent execution for a beautifully finished watch. We also saw several other watches which are still under embargo, and will report on those when the time comes.
YouTube Video: Technical brief on the Métiers d’art Tribute to the Quest of Time wristwatch
Click here to watch on YouTube.
Photo Notes
We were informed by the VC PR Team before I left for the event that there will be no photography opportunity for the watches. Thus, I decided to travel with a film camera – a 60+ year old Leica M2 with two lenses – the Summaron-M 35mm F2.8 and a Super-Elmarit-M 21mm F3.4 lens. I will share my experience of only having a film camera on a major trip when I have developed and scanned the images. I left the trusty Leica SL3-S and its lenses in the dry box.
This arrangement is quite standard and we totally understand why it is so. As we were a large group of journalists under a very tight schedule and allowing for photography sessions will inevitably cause delays in the program.
Thus the photographs we share here are made with my iPhone 15. The YouTube Video is also shot with the iPhone 15 in vertical mode, and cut in Davinci Resolve into Full HD horizontal mode. The video is shot in-situ at the VC Manufacture at Plan-les-Ouates, in Geneva. Please excuse the shaky footage. But we wanted to share the content with all of you.
