By Jovan K
Vacheron Constantin’s 270th year isn’t signaled by a new line of watches. It’s signaled by three unique, flat-out, undeniable statements. This La Quête series, which gives us the Cosmica Duo alongside the Ptolemy and Copernicus Celestia Grand Complications, represents watchmaking operating at a level most brands will never reach. These aren’t watches designed to sell; they’re proof that after nearly three centuries, Vacheron can still build things no one else would dare attempt.
Les Cabinotiers Cosmica Duo – Grand Complication (Ref. 9780C/000G-087C)
This is Vacheron flexing every muscle it has. The Cosmica Duo is a 47mm white gold case housing 24 complications across two reversible dials, driven by the new Calibre 2756-B1, a four-year development project packing 1,003 components into a movement barely over 12mm thick.
The first dial, in ultramarine blue with mother of pearl accents, charts the Northern Hemisphere’s sky on a disc barely 0.25mm thick. It turns quietly under your wrist, keeping sidereal time while running a perpetual calendar, two time zones, and a 24-city world time display.
Turn the case over using its quick-release strap system and the second dial opens straight onto the mechanics. Skeletonized bridges stretch across the tourbillon at 12, a moon phase precise for a millennium, sunrise and sunset readouts and a minute repeater whose regulator keeps every strike smooth and even. This side displays true solar time, while the other shows mean civil time. You switch between cosmological realities with a turn of your wrist. Sixty hours of power reserve, a minute repeater, a tourbillon, and two fully functioning dials. Call it whatever you want, but fellas, this is what ‘above haute horology’ looks like.
Celestia Astronomical Grand Complication: Homage to Ptolemy and Homage to Copernicus
If the Cosmica Duo explores celestial mechanics through duality, these two watches explore how humanity has conceptualized the cosmos itself. Both run on Calibre 3600, a 514 component movement measuring just 8.7mm thick despite housing 23 astronomical complications. Each watch displays three distinct times: civil, solar and sidereal. Each operates on its own gear train. Up front, the dial keeps civil and solar time in conversation through a running equation of time. Look closely at the equation of time: the sun tipped minute hand doesn’t just display; it commands. It shifts forward or pulls back based solely on the Earth’s eccentric orbit. Vacheron paired this function with the essentials: a perpetual calendar, a millennium grade moon phase, and a comprehensive zodiac track that locks onto the seasons and equinoxes, all alongside the crucial sunrise and daylight metrics. Completing the picture, a mareoscope shows the tides in motion through the gravitational play between Earth, Moon, and Sun.
The rear dial transforms into a celestial map: two layered sapphire discs rotate to show real time constellations visible from your location, with the lower disc spinning four minutes faster than civil time each day to track sidereal rotation. A three week power reserve runs off six barrels in series.
Each engraving consumed 240 hours of handwork. These unique pieces come in 18K pink & white gold, measuring 45mm x 13.91mm and certified by the Hallmark of Geneva. It’s clear that this trio exists because Vacheron decided its anniversary deserved watches that function as intellectual artifacts as much as mechanical instruments.
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