Details

Brand

Vacheron

Model

Patrimony “Excellence Platine”

Reference

86020/000P-9345

Movement

Automatic cal. 2460 R31R7

Case

42.5mm

Metal

Platinum

Circa

2009

Dial

Platinum (Sand Blasted)

Bezel

Platinum

Condition

Very Good

Box/Papers

Yes (Open Papers)

About this watch

Band: Leather (OEM) Clasp: Platinum (Butterfly) Glass: Sapphire crystal Water Resistant: 30m / 3 ATM Vacheron Constantin was founded in Geneva in 1755. Jean-Marc Vacheron opened his own workshop that year at just 24 years old. He was one of the cabinotiers, the specialist watchmakers who worked from the light-filled attic workshops of Geneva's Saint-Gervais district. The Maison has operated continuously ever since, more than 270 years. That makes it the world's oldest watch manufacture still in uninterrupted production. The Constantin half of the name arrived in 1819, when François Constantin joined as a partner to help sell the company's watches internationally. A line from one of his letters that year became the house motto: "Faire mieux si possible, ce qui est toujours possible", do better if possible, and that is always possible. It still guides the Maison today. The Maltese cross emblem followed in 1880. It isn't decoration. It's drawn directly from a cross-shaped component inside the movement's barrel that limits tension on the mainspring, so the logo is quite literally a piece of the watch itself. Vacheron Constantin is also historically tied to the Geneva Seal. In 1901, it received the very first Poinçon de Genève ever awarded. This watch is from the Patrimony collection, launched in 2004 as a deliberate return to Vacheron Constantin's own archive. It revives two 1957 references, the 6187 and 6179, both built around a round case, a slim bezel, short lugs, a flat dial, and a pearled minute track. Patrimony's whole design philosophy is restraint. Nothing decorative for its own sake, just proportion and finishing doing the work, which is harder to execute well than it looks. This…