A 300 baguette-cut diamonds tourbillon timepiece from the Vacheron Constantin Traditionnelle collection embodies all the watchmaking mastery and decorative expertise of the Maison’s cherished artistic crafts..
Vacheron Constantin has enhanced the Traditionnelle collection with a tourbillon High Jewellery model powered by ultra-thin Calibre 2160. This technical timepiece is enhanced by exceptional mastery in the art of invisible gemsetting. All case components are paved with baguette-cut diamonds, from lugs to caseband, from bezel to clasp and from the crown to the dial with its radiant motif. This Traditionnelle tourbillon High Jewellery timepiece reflects Vacheron Constantin’s own approach to High watchmaking.
High Watchmaking meets High Jewellery
A Vacheron Constantin watch cannot be technical without being precious. Over the course of the Maison’s more than two and a half centuries of existence, this attitude has constantly stimulated its creativity. Born at the height of the Age of Enlightenment, this philosophy specific to Vacheron Constantin was nurtured in particular by La Fabrique, a unique organisation encompassing more than 5,000 watchmaking and goldsmithing professionals in 18th-century Geneva. Today, Vacheron Constantin continues to perpetuate this legacy through timepieces whose aesthetics stem from research that is equally thorough in exploring decorative arts as in ensuring smooth mechanical operation.
With the Traditionnelle tourbillon High Jewellery watch, this approach finds an exceptional new interpretation. Entirely paved with baguette-cut diamonds, this timepiece offers a remarkable symbiosis between expertise in artistic crafts and mastery of horological complications. The tourbillon regulator equipping its ultra-thin movement serves as a visual starting point for the gemsetting adorning the dial and which blossoms like a sparkling corolla. This composition is complemented by a sloping inner bezel ring and bezel that are likewise gemset, as indeed are the crown, lugs, caseband and clasp.
The magic of invisible setting
For this latest watch joining the collection, invisible setting was chosen to highlight the distinctive structure of its ornamentation. Invented in the early 20th century, this technique consists of setting perfectly calibrated stones so that the metal prongs serving as visible fastening points vanish, hence its name. Instead, master jewellers fashion T-shaped rails (channels), while the gems are cut with a groove on each side of the culet – the bottom facet of the stone. The gems are then slid one by one between the channels to form diamond paving with no visible joints.
For the setting to be perfect, the gems must be cut with absolute precision. This is a major challenge for this watch, whose radiating setting plane requires multiple calibrations of the baguette-cut diamonds that are increasingly larger the further away they are from the tourbillon. The same difficulty is found on the lugs with their trapeze-shaped baguette-cut diamonds, as well as on the caseband that was the object of specific research and cutting to enable vertical positioning of the gems. The crown is also entirely invisible-set on both the edge and front, where the diamonds have been specifically cut to fit between the polished flanks of the Maltese cross.
In all, this Traditionnelle tourbillon High Jewellery is adorned with more than 300 diamonds (~27.11 cts), resulting from exceptional gemsetting craftsmanship.
An ultra-thin tourbillon calibre
Paired with a dark grey alligator leather strap with tone-on-tone stitching, this watch measures 41 mm in diameter, making it suitable for all wrists, not least because it is so slim (12.46 mm). The latter is made possible by Calibre 2160, the first self-winding tourbillon movement developed by the Maison. In addition to the elegance of its openworked carriage shaped like the Manufacture’s Maltese cross emblem, Calibre 2160 is distinguished by its extreme slenderness: ultra-thin movement featuring a total of 188 components measures just 5.65 mm thick and has an 80-hour power reserve. The steady beating of its mechanism operating at the moderate frequency of 18,000 vibrations per hour (2.5 Hz) can be admired through the sapphire caseback, notably thanks to the peripheral 18K gold oscillating weight featuring a Clous de Paris hobnail guilloché pattern and serving to reduce the overall thickness.
The same quest for perfection has been applied to the finishing of the movement, with a circular-grained mainplate on the dial side and hand-bevelled bridges adorned with Côtes de Genève on the back. The gear train wheels are circular satin-finished, while the screws are chamfered and polished. Inspired by the Maison’s emblem, the tourbillon with its carriage bearing the small seconds indicated by a blackened screw features exceptional finishing lavished on all its components. One example is rounding off, which consists in filing the tourbillon bar to achieve a conical and semi-cylindrical shape, entirely hand-crafted to meet the criteria required by Vacheron Constantin.
