Vacheron Constantin

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Thursday, August 19. 2010

I have a friend who is a bit of a watch collecter and amateur expert. He showed me the Vacheron Constantin watch he was wearing the other day.

It's the oldest surviving watch company in the world. Est. 1755. They make unostentatious fine watches, or "timepieces" as watch snobs term them. You have to wind them every morning which, if I understand it right, all very fine watches require.

I am a Timex guy - a watch I wear routinely needs to take plenty of abuse and needs to be disposable - but I have a couple of somewhat fancier watches which I rarely use. Consumption is not one of my hobbies (I don't own a lot, but I have enough of everything), but I can appreciate fine hand-made things.

My friend tells me that Obama wears a flashy and expensive IWC, assembled from innards made by other companies. "Typical Obama," said he.

Photo is a Vacheron Constantin Jubilee.

Posted by Bird Dog in History, The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation at 06:08 | Comments (5) | Trackbacks (0)

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My everyday watch is a Tag Heuer 2000 series Auqagraph I was given in 2001 - I have literally beat this watch silly and it still runs great. They make a great watch.

For dress, Tag Heuer again - only the Aquaracer I bought a couple of years ago to replace an Omega I had.

Oddly, Tag Heuer is the only watch I can wear that doesn't break down or crap out in a year or so. I have high iron content blood and somebody once told me that is why the cheaper watches crap out. Something about magnetic something over time, blah, blah, blah.

I call BS on that. :>) They are just cheap watches. :>)

#1 Tom Francis on 2010-08-19 10:06 (Reply)

I love mechanical watches! I even have a couple of them that require winding... but I much prefer the "automatic" style of self winding watches... having to wind them being a bit of a bother. My current watch victim of choice is a Seiko the replaced my last Seiko, deceased by abuse on the wrist of mechanical wrath....

Several years ago I got ambitious and started cycling my watches through the last remaining jeweler who still serviced them (all the other jewelers I went to stated they sent them off to New York for repair). Bummer is, after I had them fixed I started actually WEARING them again... and one by one they succumbed to the wrist of mechanical wrath....

So now I buy Wal-mart disposable watches when I work on mechanics... and the office watch is my current Seiko. No class in a Wal-mart disposable, but a whole lot cheaper to throw away.

Asides: I have a Timex I bought in 1975 when I abused my Zodiac to death. $10 in 1975. They charged me $25 to clean it, but for any repair, I have to send it back to Timex.

I also bought a Bulova watch that same year. I saw the same model in the UK in the 90s for sale new. They still make a similar if not the same version.

I have my dad's Accutron. I was told they send them back to Bulova and for (IIRC) $50 they'll tell you if it can be fixed. Decisions, decisions.

#2 JoeC on 2010-08-19 10:16 (Reply)

Not all very fine watches require winding every day. Ones that do have movements which require that potential energy be wound into the mainspring manually, and hence are known as "Manual" movements. Others use a rotor which spins when the wearer moves his wrist in space, this spinning of the rotor then being converted into the potential energy in the mainspring. Since these do not require winding, but rather self-wind automatically as the wearer moves his wrist, these are known as "Automatic" movements. Fine watch manufactures such as Vacheron Constantin, Patek Philippe and so on, usually offer both manual and automatic movements in their line of timepieces. (By the way, the reference to Obama's watch using the innards of another company refers to in-house vs �bauche movements, and is another topic entirely)

#3 neuromon on 2010-08-19 10:17 (Reply)

I should have mentioned (or maybe I shouldn't), that you illustrated your story about a manually wound watch by using photos of an Automatic movement- that decorated gold semi-circle is the rotor. The watch in your photos does not need to be wound every morning :-)
PS- I have an A. Lange & Sohne with a Manual movement. I wind it at the same time every evening, so that the average energy in the mainspring is relatively constant. It's a moment in the day that I look forward to with relish and affection; spending a few moments with my watch, feeling the buttery-smooth flow of gears through the crown as I wind.... bliss

#4 neuromon on 2010-08-19 10:28 (Reply)

I would love to own an RGM, they are beautiful and made right down the way in Pennsylvania.

http://www.rgmwatches.com/

That and a Jaeger-Lecoultre

A Patek also and an Omega pre-1969 build and

oh well, outlook bleak on those fronts at the moment

#5 mc (Link) on 2010-08-22 11:32 (Reply)

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Thursday, August 19. 2010

Vacheron Constantin