- Vacheron Constantin is bringing the Concours d’Élégance concept to the world of watch collecting with a global competition to find the brand’s best vintage watches.
- The competition will include seven different categories, with a panel of judges set to select the prize winners.
- Entries are open from January 19 until April 30, with the awards to be given at a ceremony on November 10.
I’ve often wondered why there aren’t more direct parallels between the worlds of watch and car collecting (especially when it comes to condition and restoration), but for the first time, Vacheron Constantin is bringing one of the best elements of vintage car enthusiasm to the watch game.
Specifically, the storied Genevan watchmaker is set to host the first-ever Concours d’Élégance-style event (“competition of elegance” from the French). Established in partnership with the auction house Phillips in Association with Bacs & Russo, Vacheron wants collectors to enter their very best pocket watches and wristwatches produced between 1755 and 1999 (with the exceptions of quartz watches, clocks, and heavily modified pieces).
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This competition is set to include seven different categories, including:
- Striking Mechanisms (minute/quarter/half-quarter repeaters, grande sonnerie),
- Chronographs (two/three-register, single-pusher, split-seconds),
- Astronomical Complications (triple/complete/perpetual calendars),
- Multiple Complications (two or more),
- Chronomètre Royal (watches with the official designation “Chronomètre Royal“)
- Métiers d’Art (excluding skeletons),
- Design (signature VC case or display codes, retrogrades included).
Each watch can only be entered into one category.
As far as how the judging will work, each timepiece submitted will be evaluated against nine criteria that include authenticity, elegance, rarity, impact (on VC or watchmaking at large), provenance, technicality, métiers d’art, state of preservation, and that elusive emotional dimension.
Those doing the judging are some of the best in the business, with Vacheron Constantin having confirmed the involvement of historian Nicholas Foulkes, vintage expert Auro Montanari, Bacs & Russo founder Aurel Bacs, and Vacheron’s own Heritage & Style Director, Christian Selmoni.
This is an exciting step forward for the watch industry more generally, as it’s typically only auction season or private exhibitions when the collecting community gets a closer look at the very best vintage watches. While Vacheron Constantin will be the first to run an event of this kind, there’s no reason that other brands couldn’t follow suit in the years to come, bringing an important new dimension to an industry that’s predominantly focused on modern watches.
“As a lifelong enthusiast of Concours d’Élégance concept, it has long been my dream to bring this concept to fine watchmaking,” Bacs said in a statement. “I am delighted that Vacheron Constantin has accepted our invitation to support the world’s very first Concours d’Élégance dedicated to timepieces and I look forward to the inspiring discoveries and scholarly conversations that will emerge from the timepieces entered in this competition.”
Entries are open from January 19 until April 30, with the awards to be given at a ceremony after Phillips and Bacs & Russo’s end of year auctions on November 10.
