Vacheron Watches

Vacheron Constantin - The History

Vacheron Constantin is the oldest watchmaker in Geneva, Switzerland. The company has been running for over two hundred years and has the reputation of having produced the most expensive watch of all time, named the ‘Kallista’ (Greek meaning ‘most wonderful’).

The company was founded in Seventeen Fifty Five by Jean-Mark Vacheron, a watchmaker living in Geneva. He was just twenty four years of age at the time but already had established himself as a master craftsman, specialising in the creation of high quality and expensive watches.

Thirty years later his son Abraham, well versed in the family craft, took over the business and ran it successful through a turbulent political period which included such events as the French Revolution.

In Eighteen Fourteen the third generation of Constantin was crafting the timepieces. Jacques Barthelemy was running the company but had various difficulties, realising the need for a business savvy partner. This role was given to the son of a wealthy Genevan man Francois Constantin (not a relation). The company name Vacheron Constantin was then created.

Together they led an exciting and flamboyant lifestyle, travelling the world to sell their luxurious watches. In Eighteen Sixty Four they firmly set foot in foreign markets establishing an agency in North America.

From here onwards the company was passed onto a number of family successors, standing firm through a low period in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries which included the Great Depression and the two World wars.

Today Vacheron Constantin has a fine reputation for complicated, elegant and expensive watches such as the Tourbillon, Grand Mercator and their perpetual calendar.. They are the watch enthusiasts dream producing timepieces with masterful craftsmanship taking their creations to a high level of artistry. The watches we can stock are the Overseas Chronometer and the Overseas chronograph.

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