The History of Vacheron Constantin’s 270-Year Watchmaking Legacy

With a history as rich, and long, as that of Vacheron Constantin, it’s hard to choose that opening-paragraph story that goes to the heart of the brand; a set-up to explore its unique narrative. When discussing Vacheron Constantin history, do you opt for Georges-Auguste Leschot’s 1839 invention of the pantograph? This machine-made watch parts with such precision they could be interchanged with minimal adjustment. It also contributed to the development of the US watch industry, however Vacheron Constantin didn’t use it to make cheap mass-produced designs but to maintain a technical lead over its competition.

Or there’s the story of the motto to which the maison adheres today, “do better if possible, and it is always possible”. This phrase was first written in a letter, from 5 July 1819, from François Constantin, who joined the business as a salesman, the same year as Jacques-Barthélémy Vacheron, grandson of founder Jean-Marc.

Do you maybe list its watchmaking firsts to show its mechanical prowess? There’s the 1932 pocket-watch collaboration with Louis Cottier that enabled the simultaneous display of 24 time zones and became the standard on which all world time displays are based. The first retrograde display in 1940, or the first Hebraic perpetual calendar. Possibly mention that, as recently as 2024, it broke its own record and, with the Les Cabinotier Berkley Grand Complication, created the most complicated pocket watch in the world, featuring another first – a Chinese perpetual calendar.

Given all that, maybe it’s best to start at the beginning. To Geneva in 1755, when a 24-year-old Jean-Marc began work on his first watch. This Geneva was rich both economically and philosophically. Jean-Marc was a man of this Enlightenment, classically educated with an interest in literature, history, politics, and, rather helpfully, micromechanics. It was home to philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau, son of a watchmaker, whose central idea was that all human beings are, by their nature, good but are rendered corrupt by society. Voltaire, who believed above all in the efficacy of reason, through which all social, religious or political change could be implemented, had taken a house in the canton also in 1755. Vacheron was alive to all this; something which explains the continued intersection of art, culture, and watchmaking that exists in the timepieces the maison produces to this day.

“From the historical perspective, there were differences between Geneva watchmaking compared with other areas, such as the Jura and Neuchatel,” says Vacheron Constantin’s heritage director Christian Selmoni. “Geneva, since the beginning of the 18th century, has been a very active area gathering watchmakers, jewellers, goldsmiths and artisans in a community known as ‘La Fabrique’. Consequently, and naturally, Vacheron Constantin, since its early years, has been associating decorative crafts – the métiers d’art – with its watchmaking art. In addition, our Maison started to export its creations very early beginning of the 19th century to other countries, and continents, and in return our style has been influenced by foreign cultures and arts.”

This spirit of exploration and inquisitiveness did not stop with Jean-Marc but was something he instilled in his son Abraham and later his grandson. Without, in particular, Jean-Barthélémy’s innovation – he diversified into textiles and cherry brandy to survive the several crises caused by the French Revolution, the Napoleonic Wars, and France’s annexation of Geneva from 1798 to 1813 – and his extensive travel to bring the watches to new markets, it is unlikely that a Vacheron Constantin would have been the centre piece of Faberge’s Third Imperial Egg in 1837.

It’s that creative way of thinking that led Vacheron Constantin to create the first-ever driving watch. Originally produced for the American market, it was revived as the Historiques American 1921 in 2008. Even now it is a beautifully unusual design with its crown proud of the case, perched on a corner between what is traditionally the one and two o’clock position but here, thanks to the angling of the dial is now its 12 o’clock, so it can be read without moving the hand from steering wheel.

Other aesthetic innovations include the now-signature ‘cornes de vache’ lugs, which first appeared in 1955, during a period of exceptional creativity at the maison spearheaded by Georges Ketterer, who took over after a brief period of ownership by Jaeger-LeCoultre. It was under Ketterer’s son, Jacques, that Vacheron Constantin produced its most underrated, now appreciated design – the 222. Its genus and subsequent lack of splash feels very typically Vacheron, a maison that, throughout its history has favoured quiet confidence over sensationalism, as Selmoni attests, “each piece we make is crafted with a level of precision and artistry that requires extensive time and skilled craftsmanship, and we’re extremely proud of our dedication to quality over quantity.”

Looking for an unusual watch for an equally unusual anniversary, Jacques Ketterer sought the talents of Jörg Hysek. Something of a wunderkind, Hysek was just 23. He had come to Geneva from East Berlin in 1960, just before the construction of the Wall. In a strange parallel with Jean-Marc Vacheron, he was both a creative and an engineer. He studied micromechanics at the Biel Technical School for two years, then enrolled in the Vocational School for Watchmakers Pforzheim, before going to London for two years in 1973 to study sculpture at the London Academy of Art. He returned to Switzerland to spend four years at Rolex where he worked as a designer, before starting his own business, Hysek Styling. One of his first clients was Vacheron Constantin.

Coming five years after Audemars Piguet’s Royal Oak and a year after Patek Philippe’s Nautilus, the 222, until its recent reissue, hadn’t held the horological imagination in quite the same way as its sporty elegant bedfellows. This could partly be due to the fact that the design was controversial for Vacheron Constantin, whose customers expected the maison to stick to dress styles; something it discovered with the 222’s predecessor, the Ref. 2215, its first failed foray into integrated sport style.

“I think that it is important to remember that sporty-elegant watches – coming from prestigious maisons – were at the time only a fraction of their offer, which consisted mostly of dress, elegant and classic timepieces,” says Selmoni. “Today, [by contrast], there is a huge interest from clients for sporty-elegant watches, and in this context, the 222 model – especially the so-called jumbo one – is driving a lot of interest, due to its pure and elegant design.”

To paraphrase Richard Attenborough in Jurassic Park no expense was spared in the making of the original 222. The dials were made by Geneva’s Stern Creations and the integrated bracelet was by Genevan native Gay Freres – the metalwork specialist who started out making pocket-watch chains in the 19th century and went on to become the most respected bracelet maker in the world; so prestigious that Rolex bought it in 1998. The 222 remained part of the collection until 1985, before its resurrection in 2022, however even in that time, only an estimated 3,000 were made across the various metal options and dial sizes.

The late 1970s were the closest Vacheron Constantin came to being on the rocks. The price of oil dropped, and the dollar was weakened. Vacheron Constantin lost virtually all of its important Middle Eastern markets and production subsequently dropped to just 3,000 watches. Following the death of Jacques in 1987, the Maison was bought by Sheik Ahmed Zaki Yamani through Investcorp – the controversial private equity firm to whom Maurizio Gucci desperately sold 47.8% of his fashion and luxury goods empire, and that bought Chaumet in 1987 after it filed for fraudulent bankruptcy.

A total re-organisation followed and Vacheron Constantin started the 1990s rediscovering its history of alternative time displays, unveiling, in 1992, what is considered one of the most important watches to come out of the maison – the Patrimony Minute Repeater Perpetual Calendar ref. 30020. It was created as direct competition to Patek Philippe’s Ref.3974, the first automatic wristwatch to combine a perpetual calendar with a minute repeater, and, with its simple elongated indices and teardrop lugs has design codes that remain distinctly Vacheron to this day.

The acquisition in 1996 by Richemont, then the Vendôme Group, gave the maison the stability to return to its creative roots. There was a return to complex metier d’art dials and horological creations in Les Cabinotiers. The Overseas brought a sporty insouciance to the maison, the Patrimony showcased its talent for stylistic purist with its minimalist lines and slender dimensions, while the vintage vibes of the Fiftysix proved it could impress the millennial crowd.

It is not just within its watchmaking that Vacheron Constantin channels the curiosity and creativity of its founder. Partnerships with the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Louvre and the Educational Institute of the Palace Museum in Beijing’s Forbidden City alongside collaborations with Abbey Road Studios, show a Maison looking outside itself for inspiration and new ways to explore the concept of time in metaphysical as well as physical ways. Rousseau once said that “the real world has limits; the imaginary world is infinite”. Over 270 years, Vacheron Constantin has proved that, when it comes to watchmaking, its imaginative possibilities really are endless.

More details at Vacheron Constantin.

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