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The History of Vacheron Constantin Wrist Chronographs Part1 1917-1970
Undoubtedly the chronograph has been one of the greatest hits of the mechanical watch revival of the 80s. It is the undisputed king of complications in term of market desirability and success and a little known fact that it is also extremely complicated to manufacture. Vacheron Constantin created its very first wrist chronograph in 1917 and since then the variety and diverse designs make these some of the most desirable ever made.
In 1776, Genevan watchmaker Jean Moïse Pouzait filed a description of a watch with independent seconds with the Society of Arts in Geneva. The seconds hand was driven by a separate gear train, meaning it could be stopped and started independently of the mechanism that drove the hour and minute hands. The big problem was that the seconds hand could not be returned to zero.
Fast forward 50 years to witness the creation of what would undoubtedly become one of the most popular of horological complications.
Paris, September 1, 1821. A nice summer breeze is blowing on the Champs de Mars race tracks (where the Eiffel Tower will be built 68 years later), but tension is in the air. The horses stamp their hooves ready to dart out, the heart rates of the riders are at a peak but it is watchmaker Nicholas Rieussec who is the most anxious as it is the first real situation test of his “seconds chronograph”.
It is a day that can bring him fame and fortune.
As the horses set off so does Rieussec’s device. This instrument was devised to measure the race’s lap times. Housed in a mahogany case its cylinder escapement mechanism drove a white enamel dial marked with sixty, one minute graduations which made one complete rotation per minute. The operator pressed a needle which deposited a droop of ink from a small cavity onto the dial at the start and finish of the measured event. The chronograph as you probably all know derives its name from the Greek word “chronos” (time) and “graph” (writing) which is exactly what his device did!
The Royal Academy of Science having granted its approval, on March 9, 1822 the Interior Ministry’s Consultative Committee for Arts and Manufacture granted Rieussec a 5 year patent for a “garde temps ou compteur de chemin parcouru” (timekeeper or measurer of distances covered).
One month earlier, the London based watchmaker Frederick Louis Fatton had applied for a non ratified patent for a similar inking chronograph soon followed in September 27, 1822 with a patent for a pocket chronograph with the same functions as Rieussec’s but with a fixed dial calibrated to 1/5 of a second. Rieussec retaliated soon after with a pocket chronograph whose needle was activated via a push piece on the side of the case.
These chronographs were remarkable but had one major drawback: the seconds hand could not be reset to zero. The answer came from Adolphe Nicole, a Swiss watchmaker based in England. He created a heart shaped cam which enabled the seconds hand to return to its original position, giving way to a patent registered in London on October 7, 1844. For the first time the seconds hand could be started, stopped and reset thus making it possible to combine the elapsed times of successive events.
Surprisingly no chronograph using this device seems to have been subsequently made until Henri Féréol Piguet from the company Nicole et Capt in the Vallée du Joux presented a chronograph with a return to zero function at the 1862 London Universal Fair. Again in London, on May 14, 1862 Adolphe Nicole filed a new patent for a chronograph with reset function followed by a second patent in Paris this time on November 13 of the same year.
Another modification needed to be made to reach the chronograph as we know today. The switching works of these chronographs were all placed under the dial; this facilitated their manufacture as little focus needed to be made on the geometry of the underlying movement but the whole watch needed to be dismantled in case of repair or regulation. In 1868 Auguste Baud made the first chronograph whose mechanism was no longer positioned dial side but on the bridge side. At this period the first minute counters also appeared (up to 30 minutes)
The chronograph being no different from time only models, its in the early years of the century that its position started shifting from the pocket to the wrist and documentation from the Swiss Intellectual Property Bureau shows application for patents of a wrist chronograph in 1909-1910. It was however in the post WWI years that the wrist chronograph became fashionable. These watches either in a round or cushion shape had only one button either elegantly placed in the crown (sometimes the crown also served as chronograph pusher) or at 2 o’clock, this pusher was used for the start/stop and reset functions.
It is only in 1933 that we saw the arrival of the 2 button chronograph, which we owe to Breitling. This enabled to stop timing an event without having to reset the seconds counter (called additive stopping). Surprisingly the first implementation was the opposite of today’s. The start and stop button were at 4 o’clock and the reset button at 2. In 1935 the brand modified its original patent to switch the functions to the position we know today.
The chronograph continued being bettered with the arrival of a counter enabling the timing of events exceeding 30 minutes. The first patents for an hour counter mechanism date from 1892 but no watch with such feature had seen the light of day until 1937 when Universal Geneve was granted a patent.
The same year saw the arrival of the cam lever. Until then, all chronographs functioned with what is still today considered as the sign of a high end chronograph: the column wheel. When a pusher is pressed the column wheel is propelled to a specified angle of rotation. The demand for a less costly mechanism prompted Dubois Depraz to develop, in 1937, a system of cams intended to replace the column wheel (both costly and time consuming to make) as these flat components could be stamped and easily replaced.
Right after World War II, in 1946, a first prototype of a self winding chronograph was created by Albert Piguet and Lemania but it never went into production. 33 years later in 1969 with the decline of the traditional hand wind chronographs saw the arrival of the first production automatic chronograph movement: the Cal 11 (AKA as the Chronomatic) a joint venture between Heuer, Breitling, Dubois-Depraz (expertise in switching works) and Büren (micro rotor) and Zenith’s El Primero.
VACHERON CONSTANTIN’S WRIST CHRONOGRAPHS 1917-1970
References
In the early 20th century, Vacheron Constantin published its first public catalogues. The watches presented were done so independently of the photo references and the numbers indicated next to each watch were solely used to enable foreign clients to order their watches.
Hereunder a page from a 1917 catalogue where number 165 indicates a chronograph (photo reference 1441).
However, starting 1904 Vacheron Constantin photographed certain pieces of their collection and attributed a photo reference number in increasing order from 1 to 3800. This system was used for the brand’s emblematic pieces from 1904 and 1937.
Starting Jan 1, 1938 Vacheron Constantin adopted reference numbers for its watches starting from 4000. Reference numbers starting with 5000, 8000 and 9000 were never used and it is in the mid 70s that the numbering system was modified going from 4 to 5 digits.
Between 1938 and 1950 the reference numbers were not inscribed in the case back, for post 1950 models the reference number is inscribed in the lower part of the inner case back.
Starting 1989 (and the relaunch of VC chronographs) all the brands chronograph reference numbers start with 47000 and 49000.
1916-1937 chronographs with photo references
1917 photo ref 1441: mono pusher (via crown) chronograph, 30 minute counter 34.5mm, Cal RA 13 lignes, white enamel dial. This is the very first known photograph of a VC chronograph (even though the very first chronograph dates from 1916. 3 were made in yellow gold.
1920: mono pusher (via crown) chronograph, 30 minute counter Cal RA 15 lignes, white enamel dial. 3 pieces were made in yellow gold, the first in 1916 with a 38mm case (Paneraiesque for the time!), one in 1917 with a 37.75mm case and the last one in 1920 (photo hereunder) with a 37.8mm case.
1922: mono pusher (via crown) chronograph, 30 minute counter Cal RA 13 lignes (from 1916), white enamel dial and tachymeter scale. Made in 6 pieces in a yellow gold 33.5mm case.
1926 photo ref 2554: mono pusher (via crown) chronograph, 30 minute counter Cal RA 13 lignes in a cushion case. 3 pieces were made in 1926, 3 pieces in 1928 and 3 pieces in 1930 all in yellow gold. Among these 9 pieces only one came with a gold mesh bracelet.
1927 photo ref 3307: mono pusher (via crown) chronograph, 30 minute counter Cal 13 lignes, white enamel dial. 2 pieces were made in a 36mm silver case in 1927, 18 pieces in a 33 mm yellow gold case between 1928-1930 and 2 in white gold the same year but in a 33.8mm case.
[ 本帖最后由 uhrenmac 于 2009-6-20 21:39 编辑 ] |
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