LES CABINOTIERS
Récits de Voyages
Following in its founders’ footsteps, the Maison offers this Récits de Voyages series as a watchmaking odyssey through the world and its wonders, applying craftsmanship and mechanical art as its means of expression.
Journeys of discovery
Exploring the secrets
of Récits de Voyages
Just as the Récits de Voyages collection sets out to explore the world, the artisans and watchmakers of Vacheron Constantin likewise made daring experiments in aesthetics, pairing them with powerful movements like the 471-component Calibre 2755 TMR, featuring an on-demand minute repeater and tourbillon escapement, not to mention a power-reserve indicator visible through the sapphire caseback.
Embracing Metalwork
Architects of eternal beauty
Engravers play a pivotal role, both in translating texture and figural motifs to metal surfaces just millimetres deep and creating the channels for champlevé enamel, an unforgiving task carried out by hand where firing will reveal the slightest mistake.
Sacred geometry
Where finish and function are fused
Sumptuously engraved, the manual-winding Calibre 2755 TMR movement combines the timekeeping precision of a tourbillon regulator with the musical charm of an on-demand striking mechanism, one of the most delicate horological complications. All Les Cabinotiers calibres bring together high precision mechanics with exceptional hand-finished details.
Focus
Les Cabinotiers – Récits de Voyages sets off to discover the world and its wonders
Vacheron Constantin’s human adventure, which gives substance to artistic crafts, is enriched with Les Cabinotiers – Récits de Voyages, an imaginary horological odyssey to destinations representing the various historical stages in the expansion of the Maison. Each one-of-a-kind timepiece in the collection evokes the arts and cultures of the different continents visited by the Maison. This international expansion, which began in the early 19th century, also included China.
An aspirational travel destination for centuries, many artists visiting Asia chose to depict the traditional architecture of its temples and palaces. It was indeed depictions of Angkor Thom in Cambodia, the Temple of Confucius in Beijing and the former Chinese imperial Old Summer Palace, as depicted by so many 19th century artists, that served as models for the single-piece Les Cabinotiers – Memorable places edition. These timepieces pay tribute to the centuries-old ties with Asia that Vacheron Constantin has woven from Geneva.
Europe proved bountiful territory for Vacheron Constantin. France and Italy soon came to represent major commercial outlets for the founder's descendants, with ports such as Genoa and Livorno offering close contacts with merchant navies. From the beginning of the 19th century, the Maison gradually extended its reach to the main countries of Europe, to the point where, by 1850, its watches were already being sold throughout the continent. François Constantin was the architect of this expansion. Vacheron Constantin's Récits de Voyages echoes this masterful undertaking with the single-piece Les Cabinotiers Malte Tourbillon – Tribute to Haussmannian style edition.
Setting up its first representative office in New York as early as 1832, Vacheron Constantin was quick to identify the United States as a key market. The Maison’s watches soon met with success in booming cities such as Philadelphia and New Orleans. The cushion-shaped American 1921 watch, specifically created for the United States, in turn testifies to the buoyant mood of the Roaring Twenties, which brought a breath of fresh air to the nation.
Vacheron Constantin's relationship with the Middle East began in 1817 with Turkey. The proximity of these markets and the historical depth of these commercial relations form a chronology punctuated by exceptional creations from Vacheron Constantin. The design of Les Cabinotiers Minute Repeater Tourbillon – Tribute to arabesque watch is devoted to the architectural wealth of the Muslim world with its pointed arches, domes and mashrabiyas. The motifs chosen to decorate this watch were modelled on those of the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi, in which arabesque and floral patterns are omnipresent.
Les cabinotiers Singular Achievements
The art of mastering time through exceptional and ingenious mechanisms
