VACHERON CONSTANTIN’S Most Complicated Watch Ever Made

Reference 57260 from Vacheron Constantin is a double dial horological masterwork of hitherto unimaginable complication and technical innovation. Conceived over a period of eight years by a team of three of the company’s master watchmakers, it’s an entirely original creation exhibiting a total of 57 complications, several of which are entirely new and unique.

The new complications that were required to be incorporated including,amongst others, the multiple calendars and double retrograde rattrapante chronograph, had never previously existed and therefore had to be calculated, designed and developed from scratch, thus a completely new calibre of movement was created. This meant the creation of an entirely new type of movement unlike any other seen before.

Furthermore, even the mechanisms of the more familiar complications have been modified, reinterpreted and redesigned so that the finished watch is utterly harmonious as a whole. Its conception and realisation required not only a huge leap of imagination but a level of mathematical understanding and craftsmanship that is almost beyond comprehension. The successful completion of this watch has introduced several important brand new complications to the world of watchmaking and as such the research and skills developed during its construction can be considered to be the greatest contribution to the advancement of mechanical watchmaking since the 1920s.

Amongst the list of fifty seven complications are a significant number of ingenious and important new mechanisms that have never been seen before in watchmaking. These new Vacheron Constantin innovations are found in every aspect of the watch’s construction, within which each function has its application in watchmaking both as an individual technical development and as an integral part of this extraordinary watch.

Made of solid 18carat white gold, polished with glazed bezels on each side, the elegant and perfectly proportioned case has a three-position winding crown with corresponding indication window on the case band to show the position of the crown during winding or setting. A co-axial button in the crown controls the start/stop and return to zero functions of the double retrograde chronograph and the push button in the case band at 11 o’clock activates and restarts the rattrapante chronograph function.

Of particular note is the totally unobtrusive and new design of the concealed flush fit alarm winding crown located in the case band at the 4 o’clock position. This is a most sophisticated method of concealing the alarm button so that it does not detract from the clean line and elegance of the case.

Each side of the watch has a dial made of solid silver, while the rotating discs for the displays are made of aluminium so as to be lightweight and therefore require only the slightest energy to move. The mean time dial is of regulator style, displaying the hours, minutes and seconds on separate chapter rings, a design derived from precision regulator clocks such as those used in observatories and laboratories. This first dial displays some of the entirely new and very exciting functions developed by the Vacheron Constantin watchmakers and seen for the first time ever in this watch.

Of the utmost technical and mathematical complexity, the Hebraic perpetual calendar can truly be considered to be one of the greatest contributions to mechanical watchmaking of recent times. Due to the long term changing cycles of the Hebraic calendar and its difference to the Gregorian calendar, the making of a complete functioning mechanical Hebraic perpetual calendar in a watch has been impossible until now. Highly complicated mathematical calculations combining both the lunar months and solar year were transcribed into not only an operational mechanism but a display that is elegant, logical and easy to read.