WatchTime New York 2016: Hands On With the New Vacheron Constantin Harmony Collection


Vacheron Constantin is unveiling 10 new references in its recently launched Harmony collection, and they’re making their U.S. debut this weekend at WatchTime New York at Manhattan’s Gotham Hall. We had a chance to spend some time with several of the new timepieces and snap some photos.

VC_Harmony_Complete_Calendar_tray_1000
The watches all have the collection’s telltale cushion shape — curved casebands, square bezels, and round crystals — but have a distinct look from the first Harmony watches (all limited editions, launched at SIHH 2015), with anthracite-colored numerals (instead of the originals’ blue ones); opaline silvered dials (rather than opaline white); a new, more contemporary numeral font for the subdial counters; a reworked burgundy highlight color; and the addition of railway track minute circles. Like the first Harmony models — and all watches made by Vacheron Constantin — these ones have earned the prestigious Hallmark of Geneva.

IMG_0728

The Harmony Complete Calendar, which has a rose-gold case and a dark brown, hand-stitched alligator strap, represents a brand new complication in the collection. The date is indicated by a central hand culminating in a burgundy crescent, which points to a 1-through-31 scale around the rim of the dial. The day and month, also in burgundy, appear side-by-side in apertures in the upper half of the dial, while the moon-phase display and age of the moon dominate the lower half. Unlike most conventional moon-phase indicators, which require correction every three years, this one will require adjustment only once every 122 years. The self-winding movement, Caliber 2460 QC, is also brand-new. Composed of 308 components, and with its high-end finishing visible through a sapphire caseback, it beats at a frequency of 4 Hz and offers a power reserve of 40 hours.

VC_Harmony_Complete_Calendar_case_1000

The Harmony Tourbillon Chronograph combines a monopusher chronograph with a large tourbillon shaped like Vacheron’s famous Maltese cross emblem. The movement is the manual-winding Caliber 3200, whose meticulous details include another Maltese cross motif adorning the screw that holds the chronograph’s column wheel. This entirely in-house-produced movement was unveiled to mark the brand’s 260th anniversary. A user-friendly “dragging-display” 45-minute chronograph counter replaces the more conventional 30-minute counter of most chronograph watches, and the movement’s unusually slow, steady 2.5-Hz balance frequency allows for a better view of the tourbillon’s rotations. Sporting a 42 mm x 42 mm rose gold case, this one will be available exclusively at Vacheron Constantin boutiques.

IMG_0771
IMG_0776
IMG_0782

A contemporary reincarnation of the 1928 chronograph watch that inspired the entire Harmony collection, the Harmony Chronograph has a 42 mm x 52 mm rose-gold case and is powered by manual-winding, in-house Caliber 3300, which carries a substantial 65-hour power reserve. The watch features central hours and minutes and a small seconds subdial at 9 o’clock, a power-reserve indicator at 6 o’clock, and a monopusher chronograph with a pulsimeter scale. Like the 1928 original, it is a “doctor’s watch,” with a graduated scale around the rim of the dial — here painted in the collection’s burgundy highlight color — which can be used by medical professionals to calculate a patient’s pulse based on 30 heartbeats. The famous Maltese cross is evident again in the movement’s details, such as the chronograph gears cut out to form the cross’s shape and the column-wheel holding screw also adorned with the emblem.

IMG_0745
IMG_0776
IMG_0742
Leave a Reply