The Traditionnelle tourbillon High Jewellery watch represents the seamless mixing of excessive watchmaking with distinctive jewelry craftsmanship, an method that has outlined Vacheron Constantin for over two and a half centuries. The maison’s dedication to creating watches which can be each technically refined and visually magnificent is rooted in a practice relationship again to 18th-century Geneva, when La Fabrique introduced collectively 1000’s of expert watchmaking and goldsmithing artisans.
The spotlight of this timepiece is its invisible gem-setting, an clever method invented within the early twentieth century. This methodology entails setting meticulously minimize stones in order that no metallic prongs are seen, leading to a seamless, steady sparkle. To obtain this, jewellers create T-shaped channels within the metallic, into which diamonds minimize with facet grooves are slid, forming a flawless, joint-free expanse of gems. For the Traditionnelle tourbillon High Jewellery watch, this system posed a specific problem because of the various sizes of the baguette-cut diamonds wanted for the dial’s radiating sample and the trapeze-shaped diamonds used on the lugs. The crown itself is invisibly set on each the sting and the entrance, utilizing stones minimize exactly to suit throughout the Maltese cross’s polished edges.
The result’s a blinding show that enhances the timepiece’s central tourbillon, surrounded by a radiant diamond association. The ultra-thin Calibre 2160, which powers the watch, was the maison’s first self-winding tourbillon motion. It consists of 188 elements, measuring solely 5.65 mm in thickness, contributing to the general slim profile of the 41 mm watch, which stands at simply 12.46 mm thick. The calibre is provided with an 80-hour energy reserve and beats at a reasonable 18,000 vibrations per hour (2.5 Hz). The peripheral 18K gold oscillating weight, with a Clous de Paris hobnail guilloché sample, provides magnificence and performance whereas serving to scale back the motion’s thickness.
The ending of the Calibre 2160 is a show of Vacheron Constantin’s dedication to element. The mainplate on the dial facet is circular-grained, whereas the bridges on the again are hand-bevelled and adorned with Côtes de Genève. The gear prepare wheels function round satin finishes, and the screws are chamfered and polished to a excessive customary. The tourbillon carriage, formed just like the Maltese cross and bearing the small seconds hand indicated by a blackened screw, is meticulously hand-finished, together with a course of often known as rounding off, the place the tourbillon bar is filed right into a semi-cylindrical and conical form.