Vacheron Constantin turns 270 and celebrates with revenues of over one billion euros

The year in which Vacheron Constantin celebrates its 270th anniversary began on January 1 with the arrival of Laurent Perves as CEO of the maison. At the company since 2016, the manager had already held the roles of Chief Marketing Officer since 2016 and Chief Commercial Officer since 2021. Perves therefore succeeds Louis Ferla, who in turn became CEO of Cartier in 2024 (both brands are owned by Richemont), with whom he worked closely for eight years.

Period in which the maison has steadily entered the top ten in terms of turnover of Swiss watch brands: in 2024 it was 942 million Swiss francs thanks to 31 thousand watches sold and with a market share of 2.5%, according to estimates by Morgan Stanley in collaboration with LuxeConsult. The first product launch related to the celebration was, in January, the Historiques 222, a long-awaited re-edition with integrated case and bracelet, both in steel, of the luxury sports model 222, originally presented in 1977. Also in January, another novelty concerned Italy with the inauguration of a single-brand boutique on several levels for about 200 square meters in the central via Condotti 29 in Rome together with the historic dealer Hausmann & Co. Store which brings the number of shop windows of the Geneva maison in our country to three after those already present in Milan and Florence. In April, with the opening of the Watches and Wonders fair in Geneva, the introduction of other new limited edition models linked to the anniversary, one of which, the Les Cabinotiers Solaria Ultra Grand Complication – La Première, is a record-breaker. It is the most complicated wristwatch ever made in the history of hands.

A unique piece, certified with the prestigious Geneva Seal, which houses in a 45 mm diameter and 14.99 mm thick case an unprecedented and highly sophisticated hand-wound mechanical movement in-house with 41 complications: six are linked to time measurement, eight to the Gregorian perpetual calendar, three to lunar indications and fourteen to astronomical ones, five to the chime, four to the split-seconds chronograph and one to the power reserve via an external disc. A watch that took eight years to develop before being able to present it this year. Christian Selmoni, style & heritage director of Vacheron Constantin, explains: «Given the number of complications for this model, we acted differently than we had done in the past with other ultra-complicated watches. For the Les Cabinotiers Solaria Ultra Grand Complication – La Première, the entire design was entrusted to a single watchmaker who conceived the movement and imagined the case to adapt it to the architecture of this caliber. He then also directed the choice of finishes for each element of the timepiece.

A watch with 13 patent applications under its belt that impressively sums up the 270 years of experience of one of the most important maisons of Swiss haute horlogerie. "It represents an unprecedented undertaking," Selmoni emphasizes. Complications have also been the protagonists of other new models of the brand such as, for example, the Traditionelle Perpetual Calendar with Retrograde Date Openface produced in 370 pieces with a platinum case and automatic movement, and the Traditionelle Tourbillon Perpetual Calendar in 127 pieces, also in platinum.