Classically Complete: Vacheron Constantin Launches the Traditionnelle Complete Calendar in White Gold
Few watchmakers have had as full a year as Vacheron Constantin. With popular updates to its sport-luxury Overseas collection, an unprecedented vintage revival milestone in its American 1921 Pièce Unique, and major business developments, including the opening of its sumptuous New York City flagship boutique, the historical Swiss maison has been on a serious riff — the most recent evidence coming this past September with the launch of the Overseas “Everest” Limited Editions.
Vacheron's positive momentum continues with the unveiling of its latest regular-production timepiece, the Traditionnelle Complete Calendar. The new model is a white-gold-cased, gray-dialed update to the base design of the same name, and the latest version of one of the manufacture's signature complications, referred to as a complete calendar or, more simply, as a triple calendar with a moon-phase — in this case a moon-phase accurate for 122 years from the time of its accurate setting.
While it features a fairly unusual complication, the Complete Calendar nonetheless joins the larger Traditionnelle collection, which along with the brand’s Patrimony family is composed of mostly "traditional" models, as per its name. The Traditionnelle line also features some of Vacheron’s most esteemed work in design, manufacturing, and finishing, featuring an elegant range of complicated watches, including tourbillon chronographs, perpetual calendars, and day-dates, along with occasional forays into the avant-garde in models like the Traditionnelle Twin Beat Perpetual Calendar. The watch is the latest update to the Traditionalle collection following this past spring’s Split-Seconds Chronograph Ultra-Thin, a platinum-cased timepiece that joined the exclusive Collection Excéllence Platine.
Like other models in the classically designed series, the case and lugs of the Traditionnelle Complete Calendar are in the “Étage” style, while its sapphire exhibition sapphire caseback is stylized with a signature fluted edge. Other telltale elements of the collection appear on the dial, including the railway-type minute track, dauphine hour and minute hands, and “bâtons de Genève” hour markers— the applied details and hands all double-faceted and made of 18k white gold.
While firmly featuring a design familiar to previous watches in the Traditionnelle collection, the Complete Calendar definitively has its own identity due to the distinctive combo of metals, colorways, and its namesake complication. It measures 41 mm in diameter by 10.7 mm thick on the wrist, its 18k white-gold case water resistant to 30 meters and finished throughout with fine polishing.
The dial under the sapphire crystal is relatively understated in its look and classical in its composition, showcasing some of Vacheron Constantin’s best known historical style signatures. The dial is subtly sectored, its outer edge featuring an analog date ring with a brushed finish, its main inner section sporting a more matte surface that the brand whimsically dubs a “velvet finish.” The complete calendar display consists of the analog date ring, the day and month in parallel above the horizontal axis, and the moon-phase indicator at the 6 o’clock position with a scale from “0” to “29 ½” in reference to the precise shape of the moon in its current position in the lunar cycle.
The intriguing movement behind the sapphire exhibition caseback is the manufacture Caliber 2460 QCL/1, which is based upon Vacheron Constantin’s esteemed caliber 2450. Meticulously finished, the automatic movement is made up of 308 components, beats at a frequency of 28,800 vph, and is capable of a 40-hour power reserve. A 22K gold openworked rotor powers the watch, alongside the famed Hallmark of Geneva that attests to its high-horology status.
The Vacheron Constantin Traditionnelle Complete Calendar is available via authorized Vacheron Constantin boutiques and priced at $41,300.
To learn more, visit Vacheron Constantin here.
