A Trio One-Offs From Vacheron Constantin

If you’re celebrating 270 years of uninterrupted watchmaking history, you’ve seen it all, and sometimes you need to find new challenges to keep things exciting. A new collection of Les Cabinotiers timepieces titled La Quête (The Quest) keeps the watchmakers at the world’s longest continually operating watch brand on their toes and the collectors happy. This series of one-offs from Vacheron Constantin pays homage to astronomy and the mythical voyages of antiquity. The Poinçon de Genève watches are a testament to technical mastery, artistic finesse, and excellent craftsmanship.

The Les Cabinotiers Armillary Tourbillon – Myth of the Pleiades honors the Seven Sisters of Greek mythology. For those who need a brief refresher course regarding the ancient Greeks and their larger-than-life legends, here it is. The term “Seven Sisters” refers to the Pleiades, a group of seven daughters of the Titan Atlas and the sea nymph Pleione. We’re not going to mention all their names, but we will tell you they’re associated with the constellation Pleiades. That group of stars in the night sky was important in many ancient cultures for navigation. Now, on to the watch.

A complicated trio of one-offs from Vacheron Constantin: A tourbillon with four patents

Caliber 1990 powers the stars of the Les Cabinotiers Armillary Tourbillon – Myth of the Pleiades (ref. 9890C/000R-273C). Four patents safeguard this entirely in-house movement, which features a biaxial armillary tourbillon and retrograde hour and minute displays. One of the four patented mechanisms in this one-off watch is the instantaneous retrograde system, driven by the minute cam, which synchronizes the jump of both hands precisely at midnight and midday. The other patents include the titanium escape wheel collet, the tourbillon cages, which form a Maltese cross — the emblem of Vacheron Constantin— every 15 seconds as they rotate, and a titanium lever fitted with friction-reducing diamond-coated pallets.

The dial displays the biretrograde time indications on the right, leaving the entire left side dedicated to the armillary tourbillon. This tourbillon mechanism is outfitted with a spherical hairspring and turns on two axes. To ensure this doesn’t stay unnoticed, the spinning happens beneath a sapphire crystal dome. Another term that may require explanation is “armillary.” This name pays homage to 18th-century French watchmaker Antide Janvier, who created a moving sphere to illustrate the apparent motion of the stars.

Ancient instrument

VC aimed to design a tourbillon with the appearance of an ancient astronomical instrument once used to map the stars before the invention of the telescope. The tourbillon, which also serves as a small seconds display, features two interlocking aluminum cages that rotate on independent axes, each completing one revolution per minute.

The Les Cabinotiers Armillary Tourbillon – Myth of the Pleiades is a unique piece in a 45 × 20.13mm 18K rose gold case. This XL case is fully engraved and adorned with diamond-set sides, featuring a sculpted bas-relief design that pays tribute to the Greek myth of the Pleiades. Inspiration for the opulent decoration, which took 400 man-hours to complete, was found in the work of the Polish astronomer Johannes Hevelius (1611–1687).

The price of this one-of-a-kind timepiece is available upon request, but don’t bother because someone already beat you to it.

Grand Complication High Jewellery – Moon Dust: Diamonds in the sky

Yes, this watch’s 47 × 19.1mm white gold case is impressive. Still, the movement inside the double-sided Les Cabinotiers Grande Complication High Jewellery – Moon Dust (ref. 9717C/000G-289C) is even more remarkable. Caliber 2755 GC16 is a hand-winding movement with a research link to Vacheron Constantin’s 250th-anniversary Tour de l’Île watch. It features 16 complications, including a tourbillon in a Maltese-cross-shaped cage, which completes one rotation per minute. The watch also features a minute repeater, which chimes the hours, quarters, and minutes on demand.

The Moon Dust has a dual-sided display that combines calendar and astronomical functions. On the front dial, there’s a perpetual calendar with the date, day, and month displayed at 3, 9, and 12 o’clock, respectively — no need to worry about the calendar until 2100. The display for the equation of time reflects the difference between apparent and mean solar time, and you’ll find the sunrise and sunset times for a reference city beside the tourbillon.

Stars on the back

On the reverse side, the watch reveals an astronomical display showing sidereal time on a fixed disc, with a rotating celestial map depicting constellations visible from the Northern Hemisphere. This function tracks the true rotation of Earth relative to the stars — a sidereal day lasting 23 hours, 56 minutes, and 4 seconds — and offers a poetic yet precise reflection of cosmic timekeeping.

In this timepiece, the constellation disc completes an “accelerated” rotation four minutes faster than solar time, reflecting sidereal time. The display features a fixed, open-worked dial graduated in 15-minute intervals. The date appears on the edge of the rotating disc, and you read it via a large central hand that also points to the solstices, equinoxes, zodiac signs, and seasons marked on concentric circles. A smaller central hand indicates the age of the moon, showing the days since the last full moon.

Impressive inside and out

Caliber 2755 GC16 comprises 839 components. This movement alone has a 33.9mm diameter and 12.15mm thickness. It sits in a 47mm white gold case that is entirely engraved by hand and bedazzled with 184 baguette-cut diamonds and 165 brilliant-cut ones. It also boasts excellent acoustic qualities and perfect readability (considering its complexity) on both sides. What more can you ask for? The price. This is also a unique piece, and its price remains undisclosed.

Cosmica Duo – Grand Complication: There are two sides to this watch

The last of the three new one-offs from Vacheron Constantin is the Cosmica Duo – Grand Complication (ref. 9780C/000G-087C). This is also a double-sided watch and even more complicated than the Moon Dust. The one-of-a-kind, reversible Cosmica Duo features 24 complications, highlighting astronomical functions. Its new in-house movement contains no fewer than 1,003 components and offers a mechanical view of the cosmos.

The Les Cabinotiers double-sided watch features a minute repeater and tourbillon, all made possible by the new caliber 2756-B1. Building on the 2020 caliber 2756, this movement took four years to develop. It features a redesigned base for the repeater and tourbillon, along with two new plates governing the perpetual calendar, celestial chart, and astronomical functions.

Double dials

One blue-toned dial offers a sidereal display alongside traditional time and calendar indications. Its 22-part construction is surprisingly easy to read. The off-center time display features a rotating Northern Hemisphere sky chart, which reproduces the motion of the constellations over a sidereal day (23 hours, 56 minutes, and 4 seconds). A light-colored ellipse highlights the portion of the sky visible in real time. The dial also displays a perpetual calendar with counters for months, leap years, days, and dates. Lastly, it shows a second time zone with day/night indicators and a city display for 24 time zones.

The reverse dial, composed of 28 parts, reveals the mechanical core of the movement and focuses on solar time. The central sun-tipped hand indicates true solar time, while the equation of time mechanism allows both solar and civil time to be read simultaneously. Additional displays include sunrise and sunset times and day and night duration. Furthermore, there’s a retrograde moonphase indicator at 6 o’clock, boasting such precision that it only requires correction once every 1,000 years.

What about wearability?

It’s easy to fall for this timepiece’s complicated nature, but what about its wearability? Not a question you would associate with this priceless grand complication. Still, VC wants us to know that the 47 × 20.2mm Cosmica Duo has a very practical, even ergonomic, reversible design. Its lugs feature removable strap attachments that can be easily secured on either side without tools, allowing the wearer to flip the watch to display either mean civil time or true solar time. Due to the short, rounded lugs and reversible alligator leather strap, which ensures stability and comfort, the watch should be an easy-to-wear masterpiece, as only the strap rests on the wrist.

VC also thought of this grand complication’s functionality. And so there’s a crown-integrated push button to adjust the second time zone, while a side-mounted selector locks the sky chart during setting. The centrally positioned minute repeater lever preserves the watch’s symmetry, regardless of which side is worn.

Final words on the one-offs from Vacheron Constantin

What are your thoughts regarding these unique pieces? Are they dream-worthy or a bit too over the top? In my opinion, these watches, much more than the more introverted and wearable Les Cabinotiers Temporis Duo Grand Complication of earlier this year, are in a league of their own. Not their technical complexity but their execution puts them in the objets d’art category. I had the chance to handle the watches at Vacheron Constantin’s headquarters before the launch, and they are impressive in all kinds of ways. The movements and the complications are fascinating, and so are the decorations. They’re also overwhelming in a good way because you don’t look at these watches with the dimensions of the case in the back of your head, wondering if they would fit your wrist. These watches are symbols of strength — the watch equivalent of a lion roaring on the savanna.