Introducing: The Vacheron Constantin La Musique du Temps Les Cabinotiers 'The Singing Birds'

April 24, 2020

For Watches & Wonders 2020, Vacheron Constantin's Les Cabinotiers workshop has introduced several new unique high complications. However, the workshop devotes its energy equally to the decorative crafts which historically have been so much a part of watchmaking in Geneva. The Les Cabinotiers "The Singing Birds" watches are a group of four watches with an avian theme C each depicts a different songbird. Depicted are a blue jay, blue tit, robin, and hummingbird. The images of the birds are decorated in champlev enamel, which is a type of grand feu or vitreous enamel technique, in which cells are carved or engraved into a metal surface. These cells are then filled with enamel. The time is shown using a type of complication known as "wandering hours." The hour is shown on a numeral mounted on a hidden satellite carrier, and over the course of an hour, the satellite moves across an arc on which the minutes are shown. The complication dates back to the mid-17th century at least when, in 1656, the clockmaker Campanus brothers made the first known wandering hours clock for Pope Alexander XII.? The complication subsequently found its way into pocket watches and then into wristwatches and, in the modern era, variations on the wandering hours display can be found from makers as varied as Vacheron, Audemars Piguet, and Urwerk (the latter have a wandering hours clock made around 1680 in their office in Geneva). The movement for the Singing Birds watches is the caliber 1120 AT, which is based on the ultra-thin 1120. That movement was first introduced in the 1960s and, at the time, it was the thinnest full-rotor automatic movement ever made at 2.45mm thick. Although there are thinner automatic movements today, it remains the flattest full rotor movement. It has been used by Patek Philippe and Audemars Piguet as well. In the Singing Birds watches, it is finished to a very high standard and carries the Geneva Seal/Hallmark Of Geneva, which historically is associated with haute horlogerie watchmaking and which establishes quality standards for both finish and functionality. Each of the four watches is a unique piece. Initial Thoughts The art of decorating watch cases with enamel is almost as old as watchmaking itself, and historically, Geneva was one of the great centers of the arts. Vacheron Constantin has been almost since its inception one of the most well-known practitioners of the art (there is a fine example in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, from 1832), and today, the company is still rightly famous for the quality of its enamel work. Often, it is done in combination with unusual displays of the time, whose layout leaves a large canvas on which the enamelist can practice their art. The combination of a mechanically distinctive movement, with superlative artistry in dial decoration, is not of course exclusive to Vacheron Constantin, but it is one of the firm's most distinctive assets C part of Vacheron's overall character, which has always emphasized idiosyncratic design in many of its best-known timepieces. One always hopes, when one sees such a set, that they will all go into the same collection. I feel it would be a bit of a shame to break up the group. These birds of a feather ought to flock together. The Basics Brand: Vacheron ConstantinModel: Les Cabinotiers La Musique du Temps "The Singing Birds"Reference Numbers: 2010C/000R-B681 (hummingbird) 2010C/000R-B682 (blue tit) 2010C/000R-B683 (blue jay) ?2010C/000G-B684 (robin)Diameter: 40mmThickness: 12.37mmCase Material: White gold or 5N pink goldDial: Representation of a bird in champlev enamelStrap/Bracelet: Hand-stitched blue alligator leather The Movement Caliber: 1120ATFunctions: Wandering hours complicationDiameter: 32.80mm Thickness: 5.45mmPower Reserve: 40 hoursWinding: Manual and automaticFrequency: 19,800 vph (2.75 Hz)Jewels: 36Additional Details: Geneva Hallmark ?? Pricing & Availability Price: On requestAvailability: TBDLimited Edition: Set of four unique pieces.For more, visit Vacheron-Constantin.com.