Tradition Meets Transparency: Vacheron Constantin Traditionnelle Complete Calendar Openface

Vacheron Constantin offered up a new white-gold edition of its Traditionnelle Complete Calendar (which debuted as an Excellence Platine edition in 2018) back in the fall. Now, to round out its very prolific year of 2021 releases, the historical Genevan manufacture opens up that model’s multiple complications in a spectacular fashion in the new Traditionnelle Complete Calendar Openface.

Housed in both an 18k rose-gold and an 18k white-gold case measuring 41 mm, the timepiece showcases its “complete calendar” — combining the triple calendar elements of day, date and month with an ultra-precise moon-phase — through an avant-garde openworked sapphire dial. The new Caliber 2460 QCL/2 — based on the original model’s Caliber 2460 QCL, itself an evolution of Vacheron Constantin’s first self-winding movement — has been modified with a mainplate and bridges finished in a striking anthracite gray NAC galvanic treatment that lends an extraordinary sense of depth to the displays.

All the design codes of the Traditionnelle collection are present in both new watches, including the stepped, rounded structure of the case and lugs, the fluted caseback and elegantly slender bezel, and the double-faceted Dauphine hands and gold baton hour markers that occupy the top level of the open dial. The gray opaline flange, upon which a central hand points to the date, frames a slate-gray guilloché segment through which the wearer can glimpse the date and day disks through large apertures. Complementing these two disks is the model’s hallmark moon-phase disk at 6 o’clock, with a photo-realistic moon waxing and waning behind a translucent sapphire mask; this indicator is designed for utmost precision, requiring only a single correction after 122 years.

Visible through both the clear dial and the sapphire exhbition window in the caseback, the automatic manufacture Caliber 2460 QCL/2 is composed of 312 total pieces and offers a power reserve of 40 hours and a stop-seconds function. Beating at a brisk frequency of 28,800 vph, its dusky NAC-treated parts are complemented by the Swiss maison’s famed haute horlogerie finishes, including circular graining on the mainplate, chamfered edges on the bridges, and côtes de Genève throughout.

The Vacheron Constantin Traditionnelle Complete Calendar Openface is delivered on a gray Mississippi alligator strap with tone-on-tone stitching and fastens to the wrist with a pin buckle made of the same gold as the case, crafted in the familiar half-Maltese-cross design. Both the white-gold and rose-gold versions are priced at $47,300.