When Vacheron Constantin introduced reference 43031 in 1983, it was the first time the maison had ever put a perpetual calendar on the wrist. Conceived in the depths of the quartz crisis, it stood as a defiant statement—alongside Audemars Piguet's 5548 of 1978 and Patek Philippe's 3940 of 1985—that classical...

Patek Philippe’s first serially produced Tourbillon also happened to be a Minute Repeater. That’s not even the most astonishing thing about the ref. 3939, though, as when it was introduced in 1992 it came to market at just 33mm. The manual calibre RTO-27-PS took up the entire caseback, with little...

The reference 25668BA is Audemars Piguet's Openworked Quantième Perpétuel in yellow gold, and the most expressive of a bloodline that begins with the 5548 of 1978. Where the 5548 introduced the thinnest self-winding perpetual calendar the world had seen to revive mechanical watchmaking in Switzerland, the 25668 stripped the movement...

The 111.025 is a bit of an enigma: short-lived, widely collected, and in production for a flash. Most estimate total production well under 100 pieces. Most early Little Lange 1 references were produced before 2001–2002, and by the early 2000s the brand had halted production of most of them—these pieces...

The Vagabondage story began in casual conversation, not a sketch for once. A Parisian collector asked François-Paul Journe for something "like what A.-L. Breguet might make today," but with wandering hours—and the resulting watch, born for a charity auction, was such a hit that Journe spun a one-off into a...

Few watches encapsulate the 1970s luxury sports movement like the Vacheron Constantin 222, launched in 1977 to mark the maison's 222nd anniversary. While Gérald Genta drew the Royal Oak and Nautilus, the 222 came from a young Jorg Hysek. The range spanned the 37mm 'Jumbo' ref. 44018, this 34mm midsize...