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The Persistence of Memory: A Visit To The Archives of Vacheron ConstantinPosted by Jack Forster
Another day, another airport --getting ready to board, Swiss to Geneva 
En route --when you've seen one stratocumulus cloud you've seen 'em all 
In Geneva at last . . . Earlier this year I found myself in Geneva, which as you can imagine is not exactly an unusual event in the life of someone who writes about watches. This time was special, though. I was on a mission to visit someplace I'd never been before: the archives of Vacheron Constantin. The company has famously been in business since 1755 --now, a lot of watch companies claim they've been making watches for decades, or centuries in some cases, and in many cases it's perfectly true. In many cases, however, it's perfectly not. It's common knowledge among watch enthusiasts that often a firm has simply found a famous name lying fallow and purchased the rights to use it, but there is no more connection with the venerable watchmaker for whom the firm is named, and the modern product, than there is between the Eiffel Tower and a souvenir keychain from a kiosk at Charles de Gaulle. In the case of Vacheron Constantin, however, 250 years is if anything a modest underestimate, and for them to say they've been in business continuously for two and a half centuries is not a piece of creative marketing fiction, but a simple statement of fact. 1755 is the date that Jean-Marc Vacheron took on his first apprentice, one Esaïe Hetier. Jean-Marc Vacheron himself was born in 1731 and as guild rules forbade taking more than one apprentice at a time, it's likely that Hetier was his first apprentice and that Jean-Marc Vacheron opened his doors as a master watchmaker either in 1755, or possibly the year before. In any case, there has since then been no interruption --though there have been many high and low points, crises and changes of ownership --in production of Vacheron Constantin watches, which is a remarkable thing; there have been close calls in the company's history but it has, through thick and thin, and through both good luck and good management, as well as through the adherence to consistently high standards of watchmaking, survived and prospered. One of the most unusual features of the company is its archives, which lay in storage until fairly recently --from the period 1950 to 2002 the archives, which consist of shelf after shelf of large, leather-bound folios in which are recorded an incredible wealth of detail, were in storage; in 2002 Vacheron Constantin began the task of cataloguing and re-organizing its archives, in its building at No. 1 quai de Moulins, on the Quai de L'Ile, an island on the Rhone located at what historically was a strategic crossing of the river in central Geneva. (Prior to that the firm occupied the Tour de L'Ile, a tower that was a remnant of a fortress, also on the Quai de L'Ile, which it had occupied in 1843.) 
No. 1 quai de Moulins The archives of Vacheron Constantin include not only records of watches sold, with client names or those of agents to whom watches were delivered, but also correspondence from the principles in the firm to each other and to their agents and employees around the world. The earliest records in the archives date back to 1787. On this particular occasion I also had the opportunity to visit, once again, the firm's main manufactory, which is located in a beautiful, glass and steel building in Plan-les-Ouates, just a short drive from Geneva proper --and it was there that I happened to accomplish the other part of my Mission to Geneva, which was to visit a certain, very special, certainly unique watch which had been brought in for service. This was no ordinary watch . . . 
. . . but the whole story will have to wait just a bit longer. There I also had another chance to see, at a bit more leisure than group visits usually allow, the wonderful work done by the craftsmen at Vacheron Constantin --there's an atmosphere at the manufactory of relaxed, self-assured confidence as one might expect from a company that's had 250 years to practice its trade, but at the same time, you never get the impression anyone's taking their work for granted; rather the opposite. Part of the problem with writing about any specialized subject is that you soon exhaust your list of adjectives; those associated with writing about watches appear with the nauseating predictability of old college acquaintances one does not really like but seems to constantly run into: Passion, Heritage, Tradition. The difficulty is twofold; one soon stops seeing such adjectives at all, and, when one actually runs into them in reality --as one does at every turn at Vacheron Constantin --one is left with no adjectives to deploy. 
Patrimony Traditionelle World Time 
Patrimony Traditionelle 2755 
Openworked calibre 1003, ultra thin movement All these things are genuinely present at Vacheron Constantin --it's very seldom that I have the pleasure of seeing, in one place, so many watches and so many works-in-progress that remind me why it is I got interested in watches in the first place. On my last day in Geneva, I visited an address that's dear to the heart of any Vacheron aficionado --the old HQ on the Quai de L'Ile. 
No. 1, quai de Moulins, on the Quai de L'Ile today The building now houses administrative offices, a beautiful boutique on the ground floor, and on the second floor, a museum with an astonishingly beautiful collection of historically important Vacheron Constantin watches. 
Vacheron Constantin Museum, 2nd floor, Quai de L'Ile There are also some amazing artifacts in the second floor museum in addition to watches, including the original Leschot pantograph. The pantograph was developed by Vacheron Constantin's master watchmaker Georges Auguste Leschot in the 1840s and it was a significant achievement as it was one of the inventions that allowed watchmakers to begin making standardized calibers with interchangeable parts. 
Leschot's pantograph 
Salesman's traveling sample case used by Francois Constantin in the early 19th century 
Diamond pendant lady's watch 
One of the first series produced wristwatches. A lady's wristwatch, it was manufactured in 1887, and is wound and set by the rotating bezel. Regular manufacture of Vacheron Constantin wristwatches began about 20 years later. 
An exquisite example of enamel miniature painting; the subtle control of color is incredible on this piece. 
Hand engraved movement --a thing of beauty is a joy forever. Interestingly, the production-line method of making multiple manufactured mechanisms with interchangeable parts fabricated to high precision standards is often called the "American System," --it was originally developed for firearms manufacturers and was first successfully implemented at the US armories at Harper's Ferry and Springfield. At both armories the first true milling machines, likewise essential for the fabrication of interchangeable parts, went into operation in the period 1818-1820. One of the earliest users of the system was Samuel Colt, whose Paterson revolver was one of the first mass produced revolvers with interchangeable parts; the system in the US was rapidly adopted by the clock and watch industry, and most notably by the Waltham Watch & Clock Company, which by 1876 was producing 100,000 watches a year. These were extremely robust and accurate watches which could be made and sold relatively inexpensively --for Vacheron Constantin, however, such timepieces were less of a problem as the firm's high grade, hand finished, and often highly complicated watches appealed to a different, generally far more affluent and more demanding clientele --including, in the United States, James Ward Packard, Henry Graves, and Henry James, to name just a few. The archives themselves are a moving place to be . . . 
. . .surrounded by volume after volume of recorded history the reality of Vacheron's heritage is undeniable, and it was with great pleasure that I saw the letter, written in July of 1831, to one Henri Armand, a Vacheron Constantin sales agent. 
The Second French Revolution of 1830 had thrown the European economy into turmoil and the letter, from Jaques-Barthélmy Vacheron, wrote of: " . . a dreadful state of affairs during this latest campaign, due to the losses we have endured, and the cessation of business since the July Revolution . . . as you must unfortunately have a lot of spare time on your hands at this sad point in time, you should use it to learn the English language, as we want to set up business in New York." To be able to stand among the actual archives of Vacheron Constantin, and to be able to handle record books going back two centuries and more, is to hold history in your hands, and to gain a real appreciation for what those worn out words we throw around so loosely in watch writing --History, Tradition, Passion --really mean. Jack 
Home again, home again. By the way, has anyone besides me noticed that for some reason the Swiss moving map shows, as you go over Nova Scotia, the site of many historically important shipwrecks? I'm all for history but the whole "here are the watery graves of many who hoped to cross the Atlantic unscathed, just as you hope," is laying it on a little thick. A minor quibble as I couldn't be happier with Swiss business class in just about every other respect. My sincerest thanks to the entire Vacheron Constantin team in both Geneva and New York for an incredible experience, including Mr. Hugues de Pins, President of Vacheron Constantin USA; Ms. Ellen Sorensen and Ms. Rachel Konikiewicz; Mr. Julien Marchenoir, Mr. Dominique Bernaz, and Mr. Sebastien Knop in Geneva, as well as Mr. Marc Guten, Mr. Alex Ghotbi, and of course, Vacheron Constantin CEO Mr. Juan-Carlos Torres, for their generous hospitality and gracious courtesy in making this little research expedition possible. JF
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