Eastern Arabic Dial Vacheron Constantin Historiques American 1921

A dial can make a watch. Off catalogue except to just a handful of Middle Eastern retailers, this is the Eastern Arabic Historiques American 1921 in platinum. It was not shouted about, not in the press, and only just coming to light in recent months. No one knows the production numbers, but it doesn’t appear to be large as we’ve seen just 3 of these Eastern Arabic dials trade hands. Most went to the Middle East, a handful elsewhere. It’s not just the hand painted numerals, but the green which is a quite significant color there. And the graining on the dial is excellent as well. So what’s it all about?

The Historiques itself is straight 1920s Americana.  It belongs in a Duesenberg with someone a bit rakish transporting booze during prohibition. So the story goes, in 1921 an American client reached out to VC and asked him to develop a watch which would be very legible when driving a car. The above is the use case I like to imagine, not necessarily part of the VC lore. In any event, the watch that resulted was a rotated movement and dial with crown at 12. There are 12 of those originals. Those watches still had the subdial at 6 because they were pocket watch ébauches. The new calibre has its subdial near the 3 location because that’s what happens when they canted over a traditional wristwatch calibre with crown at 3 to be crown at 1:30-ish. And then you have the modern Historiques 1921, which has enjoyed quite a long run since 2009.

The 1921 has enjoyed that long run but there are just a couple that are actually rare. There was the 43045 QP which predated the Historiques release that no one really remembers. They did a small run for Monticello Motor Club (a private race track, fitting if you think about it) too. Then in 2021 they created a piece unique exactly true to the way the original was constructed, which was quite a cool exercise but not one you’ll see at Phillips soon. And that’s it. So, what we have here—as long as the numbers are kept relatively small—is the one of very few highly collectable 1921s. And that’s something we’ve been needing since, well 2009. Hats off to VC for not advertising this in the NYT, not running huge press in Hodinkee, and letting it slowly leak out over time by collectors. That’s rad.  

This example is one of just a few to come to market, with its full kit, from a well-regarded Genevan retailer.