Vacheron Constantin is taking a page out of the auto world’s handbook.
The Swiss watchmaker is launching a global watch competition that invites collectors and watch obsessives alike to show off their coveted timepieces from the brand. Done in partnership with Phillips and Bacs & Russo, the Vacheron Constantin Concours d’Élégance Horlogère will shine a light on both historical and contemporary pieces of haute horlogerie, which will compete for seven awards across a variety of categories.
To be eligible for the competition, collectors must submit a VC pocket watch or wristwatch that was launched between 1755 and 1999. Exceptions to the fun include quartz watches, clocks, and heavily modified pieces.
In terms of those seven Vacheron Constantin Concours d’Élégance categories, kicking things off is the chiming mechanism accolade, for those timepieces equipped exclusively with a minute repeater, quarter repeater, half-quarter repeater, or grande sonnerie, followed by chronographs, for watches with a two- or three-counter chronograph, a single pusher, or a split-seconds mechanism. The astronomical complications category, meanwhile, is for timepieces featuring a triple calendar, a complete calendar, or a perpetual calendar, and the multiple complications distinction is for—you guessed it—a watch with at least two complications. Rounding out the last three categories are Chronomètre Royal, which will compare watches bearing that official designation, métiers d’art (though it excludes skeleton pieces), and design, which will consider timepieces that show up Vacheron Constantin’s signature design choices on the case or through the time display, such as a retrograde display.
The timepieces will be evaluated based on nine criteria as well: authenticity, elegance, rarity, impact on either Vacheron Constantin’s history or on watchmaking in general (or both), provenance, technicality, métiers d’art, state of preservation, and emotional dimension. Each watch can also only be considered for one category, so make sure you’re choosing wisely when you’re sending in those submissions.
Those deciding which watches take home the accolades in question include a wide array of experts, designers, and historians from across the world. Some thrown in the mix are watch historian Nicholas Foulkes, Urwerk cofounder and CEO Felix Baumgartner, and vintage watch expert Auro Montanari. Aurel Bacs, watch specialist and cofounder of Bacs & Russo, and Vacheron Constantin’s heritage and style director Christian Selmoni will oversee the jury.
“As a lifelong enthusiast of Concours d’Élégance concept, it has long been my dream to bring this concept to fine watchmaking,” Bacs said in a press statement. “I am delighted that Vacheron Constantin has accepted our invitation to support the world’s very first Concours d’Élégance dedicated to timepieces and I look forward to the inspiring discoveries and scholarly conversations that will emerge from the timepieces entered in this competition.”
You can sign up for the competition starting on January 19, with submissions open until April 30, either on Vacheron’s website or in the brand’s stores. The winners will receive their trophies—and the ultimate bragging rights—on November 10, following Phillips and Bacs & Russo’s fall auctions. Let the games begin!
This story was originally published on Robb Report USA.
Lead image: Volker Dornberger/picture alliance via Getty Image
