Car concours are usually concerned with gleaming pre-war Bentleys and Ferrari 250s parked on suspiciously immaculate lawns. Now, with its Concours d'Élégance Horlogère, Vacheron Constantin is applying much the same idea to watches.
The Swiss marque has revealed the finalists of its inaugural Concours d’Élégance Horlogère, an initiative conceived by Phillips in Association with Bacs & Russo to celebrate exceptional historic Vacheron Constantin watches – and, perhaps more importantly, the collectors who have spent decades looking after them.
More than 550 privately owned pieces were submitted from around the world, covering almost the entire history of the manufacture. To qualify, watches had to have been made between 1755 and 1999, with Vacheron Constantin's watchmakers and Heritage department checking entries for authenticity, eligibility and documentation before whittling the field down to 95.
Those watches then went before an international jury, co-chaired by Phillips' Aurel Bacs and Vacheron Constantin's Christian Selmoni, which selected 34 finalists across seven categories: Chronographs, Artistic Crafts, Chronomètre Royal, Astronomical Complications, Multiple Complications, Design and Chiming Mechanisms.
The finalists
The headline act is arguably the unique 1940 watch known as “Don Pancho”, a tonneau-shaped yellow-gold minute repeater combining a complete calendar with a retrograde date. But there are oddities and rarities everywhere you look. A one-off platinum minute repeater from 1962 sits alongside exquisite cloisonné-enamel watches, unusual world timers, 1940s chronographs and some gloriously eccentric calendar watches.
There are pieces here that rarely appear publicly and others that were virtually unknown before their owners submitted them to the competition. Collectively, they provide a fascinating snapshot of just how broad the high-end watch brand's output has been over the past two centuries – from ornate pocket watches and mid-century dress watches to the complicated, slightly wild neo-vintage creations of the 1980s and 1990s.
The Concours d'Élégance Horlogère finalists will be displayed publicly at the Hôtel Président Wilson in Geneva from 4–8 November, before the winners are announced there on 10 November. Seven category prizes are up for grabs, along with the possibility of an additional Best in Show award.
Until then, you can inspect all 34 finalists here. Good luck picking a favourite.
