It was perhaps the biggest news of 2015, in more ways than one. Vacheron Constantin showed us a watch that redefined complicated watchmaking: the pocket watch known as the Reference 57260, the most complicated watch of any kind ever made. That sort of statement usually comes with some qualifications, of course – what is and is not a complication, and how they should be counted, is a matter of spirited, ongoing, and often incomprehensible debate. But what's not open to debate is the sheer scope and inventiveness of reference 57260. It was a breathtaking accomplishment, in other words, and of course, many of us wondered when, if ever, any of its complications might find their way into a wristwatch. The answer, as it turns out, is right now, and the watch is the Vacheron Constantin Maître Cabinotier Retrograde Armillary Tourbillon.
Let's look back at where this watch comes from. As you'll recall from our previous coverage of the reference 57260, among its 57 complications one in particular functioned as the visual anchor – as well as something of a philosophical statement – for the watch: its so-called "armillary" tourbillon, a triple-axis tourbillon with a design intended to reference an armillary sphere. An armillary sphere is a physical representation of the celestial sphere – the arrangement of the heavenly bodies as seen from Earth, projected onto a sphere surrounding the Earth.
The armillary sphere, as a phyical representation of the heavens, seemed especially apt for reference 57260 given its emphasis on calendrical, and astronomical indications. These included not only a perpetual calendar, indication of sidereal time, and the equation of time, but also something really unusual: an Hebraic perpetual calendar, which is extremely difficult to construct as the gearing has to account for the complex interaction of both lunar and solar cycles.
Above is the exceedingly complex mainplate of the reference 57260. The mainplate carries the tourbillon itself as well as the going train for the tourbillon, the gongs and hammers for the striking trains, and, up top, the mainspring barrel and barrel for the sonnerie.
Seen up close, the original tourbillon with its carriage and accompanying mechanism are really breathtaking; Vacheron obviously spared no expense or effort and it really shows. I think there are more sharp inner corners on display in the train bridges on the right and left hand side of the tourbillon than in any 10 other high end watches I've ever seen and of course the finish on the tourbillon cage itself is to the same standard. I don't know who did the polishing but they've got the touch of a Chantilly lacemaker and the patience of a saint (maybe two saints).
So, how does such a superlatively crafted mechanism look, when you transplant it from a monumentally sized case that is portable more de jure than de facto, and place it in a wristwatch? Based on the images we've seen from Vacheron, the answer is, pretty darned fantastic. This newest timepiece, like the reference 57260, was created by Ateliers Cabinotiers, under the direction of Dominique Bernaz.
Unlike the triple axis armillary sphere tourbillon in the reference 57260, the tourbillon in the Retrograde Armillary Tourbillon is a double-axis tourbillon. There are several very interesting aspects to its construction. The escape wheel and lever are both in silicon, but unusually, the diamond pallets are installed onto the lever separately, which allows a watchmaker to control the depth of engagement of the stones with the escape wheel; the precision of the Retrograde Armillary Tourbillon according to Vacheron, "greatly exceeds the requirements of the Swiss Official Chronometer Testing Institute (COSC)." Such precision is also a challenge thanks to the other complication from 57260 that is present in the Retrograde Armillary Tourbillon: double retrograde hands for the hour and minute indication. In the 57260 the double retrograde hands are part of the "detached" rattrapante chronograph; here they function as time indications. There are no fewer than four patents for the Retrograde Armillary Tourbillon's movement, caliber 1990.
The first, and perhaps most interesting purely from a chronometric standpoint, is for the pallet lever. It's a side-lever configuration, which is typical for a tourbillon; the lever is a single piece of silicon, but with slots for the diamond pallet stones that have curved blades inside; these curved blades act as elastic clamps to retain the pallet stones in position, and allow them to be adjusted (in a conventional lever, the stones are held in place with shellac, which is softened on a warming iron to allow the stones to be moved if necessary). The second patent is for the tourbillon carriage (the inner and outer cage rotate to form a Maltese cross once every 15 seconds) and the third is for titanium collet – a collet is a collar that fits over the balance staff and holds the inner end of the balance spring in place; the Retrograde Armillary Tourbillon uses a spherical balance spring. The fourth patent is for the double retrograde indication for the hours and minutes. I'm not sure if this is a unique complication, but I can't recall any other watch with two retrograde hands for the hours and minutes with both hands on a single axis. To coordinate their action, the return of both hands is governed by the cam for the minute hand, and the entire mechanism is visible on the dial side of the watch.
The movement is very traditional in most aspects of its finish, both front and back; the bridges for the retrograde mechanism show the same level of attention to detail, for example, seen in the bridgework of the reference 57260 pocket watch, with all the sharp inner corners you could possibly want, as well as a very elegant interplay of curved shapes, polished steel, and NAC coated components (NAC stands for nano-amorphous carbon). In fact, the layering of finishes and shapes in the works for the double retrograde complication comes very close to upstaging the tourbillon, and makes me wonder very much what the watch looks like in the metal.
Alas, it's very likely that neither I nor anyone else other than a very few friends of the owner will see this watch; it's a unique piece, it's already sold, and both owner and price are confidential per Vacheron Constantin. The secrecy naturally invites speculation, though, and given the nature of this watch as a derivative in many key respects of the reference 57260, as well as the relatively close timing of its release with the announcement of the 57260, it seems a reasonable hypothesis that the owner of the wristwatch might be the same individual who commissioned reference 57260 nearly a decade ago. After all, spectacular as reference 57260 is, it's not the most easily portable timepiece and though nominally a pocket watch, one struggles to imagine a waistcoat with an ample enough pocket to contain it (if it were me I'd have one made just to be able to carry the supercomplication – after all, in for a dime, in for a dollar). This way, the owner will be able to carry a token of his or her possession of the world's most complicated pocket watch on their wrist – assuming the hypothesis is correct. Even if the owner of the Retrograde Armillary Tourbillon is not the owner of the 57260, they've still got a unique, and very uniquely beautiful, complicated wristwatch.
The Vacheron Constantin Maître Cabinotier Retrograde Armillary Tourbillon, reference 91990/000G-9882. Movement, caliber 1990, hand wound, 35 mm x 10 mm (15 3/4 lignes), 65-hour power reserve, 18,000 vph. Instantaneous retrograde hours and minutes, small seconds on the tourbillon carriage. Case, 18k white gold, 45.7 mm x 20.6 mm, sapphire crystals front and back, pressure tested to 3 atmospheres/30 meters; Geneva Hallmark.
Read our hands-on coverage of the reference 57260 right here, and our full technical breakdown here.
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