In 1755, Jean-Marc Vacheron signed on his first apprentice in Geneva. That day, under the September sky, a watchmaking house began a journey that has lasted for 270 years. To mark the anniversary, Vacheron Constantin has turned once again to the heavens. The maison has created two works that reflect both its technical mastery and its cultural outlook: the astronomical clock La Quête du Temps and the wristwatch Métiers d’Art Tribute to the Quest of Time.
The clock is a grand work of horology and craft. Seven years in development, La Quête du Temps unites 6,293 components, including 2,370 for the movement itself. It carries 23 complications and an Astronomer automaton capable of 144 gestures, guided by 158 cams and accompanied by music from a mechanical instrument built for this project. The automaton is not decorative, but conceived as a timekeeping complication in its own right, its movements indicating the hours, minutes, sun, moon, and stars.
The astronomical clock inside is equally ambitious. Its front dial includes a large tourbillon, a perpetual calendar, sunrise and sunset indications, a retrograde date, and a 110-year precision moon phase. The reverse features a star map that follows sidereal time, accurate to the second. Above, a glass dome carries a painting of the constellations as they appeared in Geneva on 17 September 1755. Astronomers from the Geneva Observatory were consulted to ensure precision down to the position of each star.
The decoration draws on métiers d’art: engraving, guillochage, enamel, hard-stone marquetry, and miniature painting. Rock crystal and lapis lazuli frame the structure, while the Astronomer figure in bronze is engraved with constellations, set with diamonds for stars, and gilded in gold. Despite its size—over a metre tall and weighing about 250 kilograms—the clock has a light, transparent presence that reveals its mechanics. This autumn, it will be shown at the Louvre as the centrepiece of the Mécaniques d’Art exhibition.
From this grand project, Vacheron Constantin created a watch. The Métiers d’Art Tribute to the Quest of Time interprets the themes of the clock in a personal, wearable form. The watch is powered by Calibre 3670, a manually wound movement with 512 components, four patents, and a rare combination of 5 Hz frequency with a six-day power reserve.
The front dial features a golden figure whose arms indicate the hours and minutes in a double retrograde display. Owners can choose between continuous display, where the arms act like traditional hands, or a standby mode, where the arms rest until a pusher is activated. This mechanism is directly inspired by the maison’s 2019 Twin Beat Perpetual Calendar. The dial also includes a spherical 3D moon showing both the phase and age of the moon, twin retrograde power reserves, and a starry backdrop recreating the sky of 1755. On the reverse, a sidereal chart rotates with remarkable accuracy, deviating by only one day in more than 9,000 years.
As with the clock, craftsmanship plays a central role. The figure is made of titanium with a golden finish and hand patina. The moon is hand-engraved, half treated in gold and half in deep blue. The sapphire dials carry metallised star charts, while all 512 components of the movement are finished by hand.
Together, the clock and the watch are a reflection of what the maison has pursued for nearly three centuries: time interpreted through astronomy, mechanics, and art. One will stand in the Louvre, surrounded by centuries of cultural history. The other rests lightly on the wrist, a reminder that even the grandest ideas can be distilled into something personal. Both pieces carry the same spirit. They show that watchmaking at its highest level is not only about measuring hours but also about linking past and present, science and imagination, human ingenuity and the rhythm of the cosmos. In that balance lies the true meaning of Vacheron Constantin’s 270 years.
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