Watch & Brew

Vacheron Constantin · 1951

Vacheron Constantin ref. 4465

In the collection

The silvered dial square-on, applied Roman numerals at the quarters and faceted darts between them.

The dial is the reason to own this one. It is silvered and matte rather than glossy, with a beaded minute track running just inside applied faceted markers, and applied Roman numerals holding the quarters. Everything on it is applied — nothing is printed except the signature — which is why it still catches light the way it does after this many decades.

Under the twelve sits the Maltese cross, and beneath that the two words that date the watch about as well as any serial number would: Vacheron & Constantin. The ampersand. The house dropped it in later years, so a dial that still carries it is announcing roughly when it was made — and in this case the archive extract settles it exactly: 1951.

The hands are dauphine, faceted down the centre, with a long sweep seconds hand reaching almost to the track. Centre seconds rather than a sub-dial at six — which, together with the extract, places calibre 477 inside: an automatic, at a date when an automatic in white gold was still a quietly serious thing to own.

Specification

Reference
4465
Year
1951
Case
18K white gold
Diameter
Not recorded yet
Lug width
18 mm (taken from the fitted strap, not measured)
Movement
Calibre 477, automatic (the extract writes it 9/12‴ – 477 autom)
Dial
Silvered, applied faceted markers with applied Roman numerals, applied Maltese cross, beaded minute track
Hands
Dauphine, with a centre seconds hand
Case back
Plain snap-back, unengraved outside
Strap
Delugs burgundy alligator, tan lining
Close view of the dial showing the applied Maltese cross above the Vacheron & Constantin Genève signature.
The signature still carries the ampersand — Vacheron & Constantin.
The Vacheron Constantin Extract from the Archives, with the case and movement numbers blacked out.
The extract from Vacheron's own archives. The case and movement numbers are blacked out deliberately — those two fields are what gets used to forge papers for a fake.
The whole watch laid out flat on a wooden table with its burgundy alligator strap extended.
The watch at a low three-quarter angle, light raking across the silvered dial.
Profile view showing the polished case flank, the crown and the shaped lugs.
The lugs are the tell on this case — faceted, and they fall away sharply.
The plain brushed snap-back case back, with no engraving.
Nothing on the outside of the back at all. Whatever it has to say is stamped inside.
The case back at an angle, with the tan underside of the strap stamped 18mm Delugs.

Record

  1. Reshot square-on, and the archive extract read into the record above.

  2. Photographed properly for the first time, on the kitchen table in evening light.

  3. Extract from the Archives issued by Vacheron Constantin in Geneva, signed by Christian Selmoni, Style & Heritage Director. It confirms the reference, the 18K white gold case, calibre 477, and the year of manufacture as 1951.

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