Tucked away all the way up on Madison Avenue at 64th Street is the Vacheron Constantin boutique. Usually filled with the latest and greatest modern hits, this summer the brand’s New York City home is exhibiting and selling a selection of remarkable vintage pieces as part of their “Collectionneurs” line.
The boutique has nine fully serviced and authenticated vintage pieces on display (with two more arriving over the next week or so), ranging from a gorgeous platinum minute-repeating pocket watch from 1928 to the stunning reference 4178. All are on view and available now through the end of August. Here’s a selection of a few of them just because we love ’em.
Platinum Ultra-Thin Minute Repeater (1928)
Consider this Jack’s new official grail watch. This platinum ultra-thin minute repeating pocket watch was manufactured back in 1928 and has a minute repeating barrel integrated into the main plate, which is what allows this watch to stay so skinny. The overall dimensions of this watch are 46mm in diameter and just 5.7mm thick. Consider me impressed. $80,500
Platinum Minute Repeater Perpetual Calendar Moon-Phase Reference 30020 (1993)
The youngest of the bunch, the reference 30020, is a platinum minute repeating QP with moonphase. The case design of this watch was inspired by that of the reference 4261, which you can see below (it’s all in the tear-drop lugs). There were only 200 examples of this watch, made so it’s pretty rare despite being just two-and-a-half decades old, not to mention it looks pretty great too. $412,000
Ultra-Thin Minute Repeater Reference 4261 (1951)
Only 36 reference 4261s were ever produced, and this is one of them. This minute repeater has a beautiful case shape with flared tear drop lugs and the slide delicately set into the left case band. This puppy was produced in 1951, though development of the movement first started way back in in 1930. The 4261 was the first ultra-thin minute repeater launched by Vacheron, and the earliest example dates to 1943 (this is a later example, obviously). $362,000