Vacheron Constantin New Ladies Watch

FOR VACHERON CONSTANTIN, 2013 is the Year of the Woman. The company reinforced the point at SIHH by showing no new men’s watches. Instead, it offered new models for women in three collections: manual-wind and automatic watches in Patrimony; quartz watches in Malte; and manual-wind in a new series of Métiers d’Art watches called Flo- rilège.

Why such a strong ladies’-watch statement? “We are moving from quartz to mechanical for ladies,” Vacheron Constantin CEO Juan-Carlos Torres told WatchTime. “A lot of ladies are asking for a mechanical watch. It’s happening all around the world, and especially in America. We now have more production capacity so we can give mechanical movements to ladies. We were not able to before.” Torres says Vacheron will continue to produce some ladies’ quartz watches, but quartz pieces will represent just five percent, or less, of VC’s total output. “We don’t have it in mind to launch a Twenty-4 line,” he said with a laugh, referring to Patek Philippe’s popular, quartz-watch collection for ladies.

The headliners of the new ladies’ watches are those in the all-mechanical Patrimony collection, the brand’s pillar. Vacheron introduced manual-wind models in the Patrimony Traditionnelle and self-winding models in the Patrimony Contemporaine series. All of the new ladies’ Patrimony watches bear the Geneva Seal, a quality mark which, since 2011, extends to the entire watch, not just the movement. Vacheron’s intention with the new ladies’ Patrimony watches, Torres says, is to show that “the lady is treated the same as a man in terms of having the opportunity to own a strong mechanical watch.”

The Patrimony Traditionnelle Lady manual-winding watch, shown here, contains Vacheron’s manufacture Caliber 1400. The watch has a white-gold or rose-gold case, which is 33 mm in di- ameter and 7.65 mm thick and has a transparent sapphire back. Around the bezel are 54 round-cut diamonds, totaling approximately 0.88 ct. The watch has an alligator leather strap with gold buckle. The suggested retail price is $26,600 in either white or rose gold. A slightly larger, high-jewelry version of the watch comes in white gold with 124 baguette diamonds on the case and 156 baguette diamonds on the dial ($335,700).