One of the greatest names in Swiss watchmaking, Vacheron & Constantin is the archetype of the Prestige Swiss Watch Company. Vacheron & Constantin, along with Patek Philippe and Audemars Piguet, make up the classic Trinity of 20th century Swiss watch brands. With a customer list in their Golden Book that reads like a veritable World Who's Who of the past two and a half centuries, Vacheron and Constantin's pedigree and recognized brand cachet is without question. That they have maintained their position at the apex of the watchmaking firmament throughout their existence, across the years and spanning the generations, makes their reputation all the more impressive. There have been bumps in the road, for sure. Many collectors and connoisseurs of fine timepieces feel that for the latter part of the 20th century, Vacheron and Constantin has lost its way, fallen from its exalted position of technical and aesthetic leadership it held for so long. Some have even whispered that the great company has been plundered from within, the temporary owners looting the store of horological riches in the archives and museum of the company, while ignoring the development and core philosophy the Brand has come to represent, leaving the Brand a hollow shell of its former self. Many of these claims are unsubstantiated rumour. Others stem from well meaning innocence. As Mr. Clemens once said, "The rumours of my demise are greatly exaggerated." In the beginning... To understand the glory that is Vacheron & Constantin, knowledge of their history and past achievements is necessary. Since their earliest days, the Vacheron name has been synonymous with fine watchmaking. The name has been well regarded by the cognoscenti and the industry insiders, always spoken with a degree of reverence and respect. Set amidst the backdrop of the European Age of Enlightenment, Revolution, and the chaos of social and political upheaval, Vacheron & Constantin's story parallels that of the history of the modern Western World. It is an interesting and worthy history indeed. Watchmaker's Workshop in 18th Century Geneva Christophe De Ziegler, Geneva Kunsthistorisches Museum Vacheron and Constantin's origins can be honestly traced back to 1755, when the 24 year old Jean-Marc Vacheron joined the ranks of the Cabinotier of Geneva. Cultured, well read, and a respected member of the intelligentsia of the time, young Jean-Marc quickly established a reputation for producing timepieces of the highest grade. Vacheron's reputation extended to the Royal Courts of Europe, where their creations impressed even the Court Timekeeper and Royal Watchmakers. One of the great seeming contradictions of Haute Horlogerie is the worship of hand craftsmanship, the mystique of the human touch, in an endeavour that is often better served by mechanized production. In an ironic way, this same paradox partially accounts for the renaissance of the mechanical watch in the last two decades of the 20th century. In an age of virtual reality and digital paradigms, the sensual image of human hands polishing and adjusting a complicated movement, hearing the soft tic-tic-tic of the escapement, precise and reliable beyond all other complex mechanical systems, is somehow soothing and lends some degree of comfort to humans that are, after all, inherently part of the analog, physical world. An all too seldom mentioned character in this fascinating story is that of Georges-Auguste Leschot. He joined Vacheron-Chossat in 1839. Georges-Auguste Leschot was one of the genius pioneers of the mechanization of serialized production, along with predecessor F. Japy in France (originated the ebauche approach to watchmaking in late 1700's), and contemporaries P.F. Ingold, Americans A.L. Dennison, the Pitkin brothers, E. Howard, and Custer. It is interesting to note that Ingold's attempts to mechanize production in the watchmaking industry were met with strong resistance in both France and England. Ingold himself was Swiss, and studied with Breguet in Paris, before attempting, unsuccessfully, to start machine assisted production lines in his own company. Prior to Leschot's work at Vacheron, virtually all parts were rough cut, formed, and finished by hand. This lack of fine precision essentially forced the custom creation of every single piece, even if the design was fundamentally unchanged. There was no interchangeability of parts, even for the same model. Essentially, every finished piece was a one-off. This was a problem of production and execution, not of design. Efforts had already started, a few decades before, to create machines that could produce, reliably and consistently, precision parts that could then be used in serial production. G-A. Leschot's breakthroughs were in designing machines that could produce parts that were of sufficient quality and precision that they were interchangeable in the same caliber. They did, however, still require hand finishing to be usable on an interchangeable basis. The production and cost efficiencies realized were such that Vacheron and Constantin quickly became a major supplier of components and ebauche to other watchmakers. They also remained a dominant manufacture due to the resulting cost efficiencies. That Leschot played a critical role in Vacheron and Constantin's survival and growth during those glory years cannot be over-emphasized. It can be reasonably argued that Leschot's machines was a key factor in the success of the Swiss bar movement design. No less a landmark work than Karl Marx' Das Kapital makes reference to Vacheron and Constantin for successfully introducing machine work into the watchmaking process. Suffice it to say that Leschot and Vacheron played pivotal roles in the industrialization of watchmaking, hitherto a cottage industry, and blazed the path for future watchmaking titans Omega and Longines. G-A Leschot was the creator of a number of other mechanical and machining breakthroughs, including a process for drilling with a bit tipped with a crown of black diamonds. During the latter part of the 19th century, Vacheron and Constantin underwent a number of name and individual ownership changes, but always with a Vacheron and a Constantin at the helm. Vacheron & Constantin was a frequent participant in time trials and competitions, usually garnering top of class awards and prizes in these competitions. There is even the story of a consecutive series of 9 watches submitted to Kew Observatories in England, all of which won top honors. These awards and prizes further reinforced the image of VC as best in the world.