Vacheron Constantin Rectangular Dress Watch ref. 7139, 'Brushed' Silver Dial

Dealer description — Oliver & Clarke

Vacheron Constantin can trace its roots back to 1755 and along with only a handful of other brands, is credited as one of the oldest manufacturers of mechanical clocks, pocket-watches, and of course, watches. In fact, Vacheron enjoys the prestige as the oldest continually operating manufacturer that still operates today. Vacheron is also a member of what has become known as The Holy Trinity , along with Patek Philippe and Audemars Piguet. All three of these manufactures have very different identities and focus areas within the industry, with VC generally regarded as the technical innovator. And despite a bevy of both technical and mechanical firsts, including the most complicated watch ever at the time of writing this, VC remains the lesser known name of the three in the broader watch community and certainly least understood. The piece that we have here is a yellow gold rectangular dress watch dating to circa 1960. The case comes in at 19mm x 29mm and remains in excellent condition, showing just normal wear with a gentle warmth to the gold. The dial inside is silver in color and features an elegant, vertically 'brushed' finishing with applied indices and is complimented by a matching 'pencil' handset. It comes fitted to a signed black alligator strap with a gold tone buckle and is powered by Vacheron's Calibre K1001/2 manual-winding movement. In some ways, this piece is very different for Vacheron. Highly restrained when it comes to eccentric, daring details and 'simple' in its design. That of course means, like other Swiss watches from this era, the execution and simplicity speaks for itself.