18 19, experienced businessman Fran? Ois Constantin cooperated with the descendants of Jean-Marc Vacheron Constantin to form the famous Vacheron Constantin. With its keen tentacles and firm belief in the market, Fran? Ois Constantin has been constantly traveling in Europe, exploring new markets for watches with exquisite design and high quality.
1839, Vacheron Constantin invited Georges-Auguste Leschot as the technical director of the company, and since then, the history of the company and the whole watch industry has been rewritten. Georges-Auguste Leschot is not only a mechanical genius, but also has extraordinary vision and rich imagination. He designed the first instrument pantograph which can repeatedly mass-produce various watch parts, bringing a breakthrough reform to the whole Swiss watchmaking industry. Because before this, the watch movement was composed of parts made independently by hand, and the handwork of each part was different, which led to the fact that the movement parts could not be replaced with each other. Georges-Auguste Leschot's revolutionary invention changed the whole tabulation process, greatly shortened the tabulation time and improved the tabulation efficiency.
1880, Vacheron Constantin officially registered the Maltese Cross as a company trademark. "Maltese Cross" was originally a small part above the clockwork cover in the movement, and its function was to prevent the clockwork from winding excessively, thus making the timepiece run more accurately. Starting from 1800- 1840.
Among the pioneers who took the lead in exploring the China market, Jiekai-droz and Leschott (about 1780-90' s) are undoubtedly the representatives of the watch industry. They have offices in London and Geneva, and send clocks and watches to China by sea. Vacheron Constantin and his son, the founders of Vacheron Constantin, probably had direct or indirect business dealings with China in a similar way at that time. It must be mentioned that Leschot is the father of genius watchmaker Georges-August Leschot. 1839, the talented Georges-August Leschot joined Vacheron Constantin, thus rewriting the history of Vacheron Constantin and even the whole watch industry. He invented new watch manufacturing parts, which initiated the standardization and mechanization of parts production.
Although Vacheron Constantin's literature does not record the exact time when the brand began to trade with China, it is clearly recorded in the book China Watch published by Alfred Chapuis 19 19 that the origin of Vacheron Constantin and China market can be traced back to18th century.
1845- 1846: explore the China market.
1845, a commercial cooperation between Vacheron Constantin and China market was recorded in history for the first time. At that time, Vacheron Constantin delivered a batch of sample watches to China. For safety reasons, the company arranged to mix all the sample watches into a company called Neuch? In the tel table of the product. Fifty-nine days later, the company received a letter from Guangdong, China, which not only indicated the time1845101October 30th, but also clearly stated that "there is no clock market here at present". After receiving this news, the brand did not postpone its plan to open up the huge China market.
1845, Vacheron Constantin's workshop was established around Paris, adjacent to the brand's global flagship store. In the new workshop, the production tools invented by Georges-Auguste Leschot greatly improved the production efficiency and movement quality. A series of industrial machinery reforms helped Vacheron Constantin expand its sales scope to China and Indian regions, while increasing its production capacity.
In the same year, Vacheron Constantin and Georges-Auguste Leschot won the important industrial invention award from the Arts Society, which marked Vacheron Constantin becoming the first watch manufacturer with the production technology of mechanical parts, making the brand occupy an absolute advantage among other competitors in the same industry. The invention of George-August Lescio greatly improved the production speed and effectively shortened the production cycle of watches.
During the period of 1846, Vacheron Constantin delivered 33 pairs of watches to Mr. Duval in Guangdong to help him evaluate the development opportunities of the local and China watch markets. From Mr Duval's letter from Guangdong, we can learn some traditional customs in China at that time, and some suggestions on watch design, such as matching chinese numerals and time calculation method. Today, in Vacheron Constantin's historical database, we can vaguely find information about watches with China elements, including dial information based on China ink painting.
This is a passage from Mr. Duval's personal letter, which expounds his point of view: "A watch specially designed for the China market will undoubtedly attract customers who do not know Arabic or Roman numerals but have purchasing power. This design will also maximize the brand's market share in China and promote sales quickly. These watches not only have practical timekeeping function, but also are decorations to show identity. In addition, we must also understand that competition will appear soon, but with Vacheron Constantin's excellent and advanced watchmaking technology and constantly improving mechanical technology, the threat of competition to Vacheron Constantin will be extremely limited, because you are fully capable of controlling this' battle'. " In terms of watch design and decoration, Mr. Duval suggested that the brand motto be engraved on the watch case-cherish every time in the past.
1904: Design a wristwatch for the Ambassador to China.
On August 22nd, 1904, the Chinese embassy in France submitted a circular letter to Vacheron Constantin, in which it was mentioned that China's ambassador to Paris ordered two gold enamel hunting watches from Vacheron Constantin during his visit to Geneva: one with the beautiful image of French queen Marie Antoinette and the other with two swans.
Document record: designing watches for the emperor
In Vacheron Constantin's document 1785- 1938, Charles Constantine once wrote: "Although there is no record of trade with the East in our historical archives, a Geneva scholar still remembers seeing Mr. Adrian Penard wearing a blue enamel diamond watch designed for Emperor China in 1865."
Give a watch to Isingiro Pulen.
In 2003, Vacheron Constantin's Richemont Group held the "Montres &: Merveilles ",Vacheron Constantin presented an ultra-thin watch to Mr. Puren, a famous calligrapher in China, the last representative of the Manchu Dynasty and the younger brother of the last emperor of China. In order to express his gratitude to the brand, Mr. Puren also signed Aisingioro Puren on Vacheron Constantin's catalogue as a souvenir. 1755-This silver pocket watch, made in1755, is engraved with the brand founder's signature "J:MC: Vacheron Constantin A GENEVE", with a movement diameter of 35.60mm, directly connected to the case, and equipped with an escapement consisting of a crown wheel, a balance cone wheel and a chain belt. The key winding position is between three o'clock and four o'clock on the enamel dial. When winding, the flip bezel and mirror must be opened.
182 1- This pocket watch with gold case is engraved with "Vacheron Constantin Chossat &:comp. "Belong to the French empire period of a genetic. The movement is equipped with an escape wheel that is still in the experimental stage, and the clamping bridge is placed according to the principle established by Breguet. Press the hanging ring at 12 to make the pocket watch tell the time and quarter the hour. Enamel dial, serpentine blue steel hands.
1831-This watch is a typical example of the decorative taste at that time. The gold case is hand-carved with exquisite patterns, and the back of the case is coated with colorful enamel glaze. The movement is equipped with a crown wheel escapement and a balanced balance wheel bridge, which is decorated with unique Vacheron Constantin lettering. Enamel dial, gold hands.
1906- The three-minute ring function control button device of the pocket watch is located at the three-hour position of the gold case. The device is connected with the movement and equipped with a lever escapement, a spiral balance balance wheel and a Breguet hairspring. All movements can be seen through the transparent sapphire crystal dial. The pocket watch also has an automatic calendar function, which can display the date and week, but it needs to be manually adjusted to February 29th in leap years every four years.
19 14- This watch with an oval gold case is equipped with an oval movement. The movement is equipped with a linear escapement and a balance balance wheel of Breguet hairspring. The lifting bezel and dial are decorated with enamel flowers, and the dial part is decorated with 12 Arabic numerals.
1935- The three-minute ring function control button is placed on the left side of the gold case. The outer ring of the silky dial is decorated with 12 enamel Arabic numerals. The dial is also equipped with a second dial and blue steel hands. Manual winding movement, equipped with 29 ruby bearings, engraved with gold-plated decoration and C? Geneva pattern. Spiral alloy balance wheel with linear lever escapement and Breguet hairspring. The winding and adjustment time starts from the crown.
1945- The back of the rose gold watch is engraved with a radiant decorative pattern starting from a window with a diameter of three pendulums in the tourbillon. Complex and exquisite mechanical devices keep pocket watches accurate. Gold-plated movement, 19 ruby bearing, 47 mm in diameter, specially designed for participating in the Observatory competition. The dial is also made of rose gold, with pure gold Roman numerals and hour, minute and second hands.
1948- The strap of the watch clings to a woman's wrist in a way of encircling three times, and a retractable strap is formed through a unique jewelry process. Carefully decorated movement with side escapement. Golden numbers and star moments, together with golden hands, make the dial more lively. Vacheron Constantin has been providing customized services to customers since the establishment of 1755. According to the needs of customers, watchmakers try their best to design the appearance of watches and clocks and choose functions and components. At that time, in order to make full use of the best light of the midday sun, craftsmen liked to set the studio on the top floor of the building, which was the early attic workshop. The craftsmen inside were called attic craftsmen.
Vacheron Constantin's "special customized service for attic craftsmen" is to realize the dream of guests to have the ultimate quality clocks and watches, and design and produce unique works according to the requirements of guests. Customized watches can learn from existing watches or be completely innovative. Guests can determine the vibration frequency and design theme of specially customized products in advance according to their own wishes. Depending on the complexity of the project, it usually takes at least eight months and sometimes even years to complete the work.
This watch, called Philosophia, is specially made by attic craftsmen, which perfectly combines the top watchmaking technology with the theme of approximate time display. The idea behind it stems from the assumption that people don't always need to know the most accurate time. A watch based on Patrimony's inheritance series, with an hour hand only in the central position, displays 24 hours a day. If you want to know the exact time, just press the three questions button.
This Vladimir watch, specially customized by attic craftsmen, is named after Slavic, meaning "Lord of peace". This top watch is one of the most complicated watches in the world. Double-sided dial has 17 complex functions, including tourbillon, minute repeater, perpetual calendar display and sunrise and sunset time. Extraordinary and outstanding mechanical structure, with a tailor-made case, the side of the case is engraved with the China Zodiac pattern in relief technology.