SACRE bleu, has the Vacheron Constantin Patrimony Perpetual Calendar Ultra-Thin turned fanciful?
All right, with a new sunburst blue dial paired to a pink gold case (and most of the dial furniture) the classical dress watch did become less traditional. Especially when taken in context against the model’s three earlier renditions, which have dials in silver, white and black. A black dial matched to a pink gold case is no doubt a strong aesthetic, true. But by comparison a blue-and-pink gold combo takes things a few notches up.
Still, to call the new Patrimony Perpetual Calendar with a blue dial fancy does not seem fair. Because what the watch actually turned into is youthful. Fresh. Contemporary.
Fact is, the striking new palette seems a more suitable match to the Patrimony Perpetual Calendar’s modern 41-millimeter-wide case.
The Perpetual Calendar getting a blue-dial version is not exactly surprising, given that Vacheron Constantin introduced the look to some Patrimony models at this year’s Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie. In the Perpetual Calendar the dial is slightly domed, over which the calendar indications — day, month (with a small leap year counter) and date — are neatly, symmetrically arranged. The pointy hour indices, dot minute markers, and stick hour and minute hands provide further balance to the layout. But what pulls it all together is the moonphase display.
The moon disc is colored in the same hue of blue as the dial, so it sort of blends in into the landscape. But the moon itself has been redesigned. The other watches have this element in a gradated rendering. The blue-dial Perpetual Calendar gets it in pink gold that is heavily textured, mimicking craters and other lunar features. Achieving such a result is not easy; Vacheron Constantin opts for champlevé enamel whose color is only revealed after firing the disc at temperatures as high as 1000 degrees Celsius.
Beneath the surface of the Patrimony Perpetual Calendar still beats Vacheron Constantin’s cal. 1120 QP, a movement that traces its origins to Jaeger-LeCoultre’s cal. 920 from the late 1960s. Of course, the perpetual calendar module that attaches to it is newer, and was developed entirely by Vacheron Constantin.
For a self-winding movement with a perpetual calendar, the cal. 1120 QP is remarkably thin at only 4.05 millimeters in height — a key in letting the Patrimony Perpetual Calendar to be less than nine millimeters’ high. Visible through the sapphire crystal caseback are the movement’s Geneva Seal décor and other flourishes, as well as the rotor ringed in 22-karat gold and which has been openworked to resemble the Maltese Cross — the maison’s logo. The 276-part cal. 1120 QP has 36 jewels, operates at an unconventional 19,800vph and is rated to have a 40-hour power reserve.
Its perpetual calendar function, meanwhile, needs no correction until March 1, 2100.
Finishing the blue-and-pink gold attire of the Patrimony Perpetual Calendar Ultra-Thin is a blue alligator strap with a folding clasp in, well, pink gold.
Still, nothing fancy here. Just being coherent.
