This unique wristwatch is another child of the massive Universe-beginning Big Bang that was the 57260, Vacheron Constantin’s incredible 2015 creation that was “the most complicated watch in the world.” Like ripples in a pond, the results of that single piece continue to manifest today, as Vacheron Constantin utilizes the considerable technical skill they manifested – and indeed, developed – to bring the 57260 to life. Those developments and complications spin off into their own, individual timepieces, and the Les Cabinotiers Symphonia Grande Sonnerie 1860 is a part of that distinguished bloodline.
The face of the Les Cabinotiers Symphonia Grande Sonnerie 1860 is not exactly Spartan, but it is deceptively minimalist when you consider what is carried underneath. The dial shows only the central hands, a small seconds subdial, a power reserve indicator, and another power reserve indicator for the chiming mechanism. But inside there is an orchestra.
This is a unique watch from Vacheron Constantin, in more ways than one. It is a solo creation, the only one of its kind, but it is also the first grand sonnerie wristwatch that the company has ever made.
To understand what that means, you have to understand what a grande sonnerie is, and what a petite sonnerie is; and you have to know that this watch is both. The decision is made by gripping the bezel and rotating it within a 30 degree arc: you can set it from Grande Sonnerie (GS) to Petite Sonnerie (PS) to Silent (SIL) by use of the bezel setting.
There are many kinds of chiming watches. Minute repeaters will, at the touch of a button, chime the time in hours, quarter hours and minutes. A petite sonnerie will strike the hours as it goes; a grande sonnerie will strike the hours and the quarter hours as well. Vacheron Constantin says that the grande sonnerie is called “The Supreme Complication” – and coming from the people who made the 57260, that’s saying something.
The difficulty in creating a grande sonnerie lies in the technical skill and scale of miniaturization, but also in providing the energy needed to produce chiming sound consistently. A watch that chimes the quarter hours and hours will sound off up to 96 times in 24 hours, meaning 912 chimes. That is a lot of energy expended in one day, and Vacheron Constantin has provided the Les Cabinotiers Symphonia Grande Sonnerie 1860 with two barrels, one for the chimes and one for the timekeeping. Hence, the two power reserve indicators on the dial. The watch movement has a 72-hour power reserve, and the chiming feature has a 20-hour power reserve.
Vacheron Constantin has actually had the skills for this for nearly a couple of centuries. There were Vacheron Constantin grande sonnerie and petite sonnerie pocket watches back in 1827. The brand had achieved some remarkable things, combining striking mechanisms with astronomical complications. Even today, though, considerable expertise is required to assemble such a piece within the smaller confines of a wristwatch. The movement for the watch, the bi-directional manual-winding Manufacture Vacheron Constantin Caliber 1860, was assembled by a single master watchmaker, and it took him 500 hours of work.
But inside there is an orchestra.
It should be noted – especially by the lone possessor of this wristwatch—that the mechanism of this timepiece is not something you can just take for granted. Vacheron Constantin built in a number of safety features to protect the mechanism from accidental interference. Care must be taken with the winding crown, for example: winding it clockwise powers the watch movement, and winding it counter-clockwise powers the chiming mechanism. The chimes will not sound while the watch is being set, either in passing or on demand. And no chime can be activated while another chime is sounding off. If you change modes in mid-chime, say, from Petite to Grande, the change will not take effect until the current chime has finished sounding. And if there is not enough energy in the barrel of the chiming mechanism to complete an activation, the chime will not sound at all. All of this is done to protect the incredibly complex mechanism within the case of the Les Cabinotiers Symphonia Grande Sonnerie 1860, and to maintain the quality of the sound experience that comes from operating and enjoying such a piece of horological artwork.
This commitment to preserving the ideal sound is also manifest in one of the watch’s other qualities. What is important in this case is not what you hear, but what you don’t hear… or, to put it even more convolutedly, what you don’t don’t hear.
In watchmaking as in life, it’s the small things that matter.
It’s called the elimination of the so-called “Phantom quarters.” I’m a little out of my depth here, but frankly, writing about something called the phantom quarter is just too cool to resist, so bear with me and may I do it justice. The “phantom quarter” is that infinitesimal and yet perceptible silence that occurs between the end of the chiming of the hours and the start of the chiming of the minutes. What’s happening in that tiny breadth of time is the changeover from one gong system to another. It’s understandable that such a thing would take a little time, but the brand wanted to do away with that gap, to make sure that the progression of sounds was absolutely regular. Vacheron Constantin, and that one hardworking watchmaker, took great care to ensure that the time interval between any two chimes remains exactly the same, so the progression of chimes is seamless and smooth. In watchmaking as in life, it’s the small things that matter.
This complex and complicated striking mechanism is actually visible through the transparent sapphire crystal caseback, thanks to the unusual construction of the wristwatch. So the sound-producing mechanism of the Les Cabinotiers Symphonia Grande Sonnerie 1860 is a pleasure not only to the ear, but to the eye… at least for that one lucky owner. May he delight in the sight and the sound of it.
