Watches & Wonders 2024: Vacheron Constantin Refreshes the Patrimony Collection

Vacheron Constantin’s elegantly understated Patrimony collection made its modern debut in 2004 but its stylistic roots come from the 1950s, particularly the Ref. 6179 timepiece from 1957 (below). That watch’s timeless, minimalist appeal came from its simple round case, slender bezel, slightly convex dial with “pearl” minute track, and its legendary vintage movement, Caliber 1003, at the time the world’s thinnest at just 1.64mm high. 

The Patrimony family that sprang from that historical timepiece turns 20 years old in 2024, and took center stage at Watches & Wonders Geneva — with two new manual-winding watches, in white gold and pink gold, and an additional white-gold model that adds a moon-phase display and a retrograde date to the minimalist two-handed time display. The two new Patrimony Manual-Winding models are noteworthy for their new, smaller case diameter — 39mm down from the 40mm of the predecessors, a subtle alteration that is in keeping with the modern trends, especially in dress watches. The convex dial, with its familiar slim, baton hour and minute hands and hour appliqués, adopts a new “old silver” color, finished in a sunburst motif. 

The emblematic minute track is made up of 48 individual pearls in the same 18k gold as the case. The manual-winding Caliber 1440, which holds a 42-hour power reserve and offers impressive slimness at just 2.6mm thick, is hidden behind a solid caseback in these new Patrimony models, an aesthetic decision made in order to offer personalization to their owners on demand, etched into the caseback in delicate gold engraving. The watches’ alligator leather straps are in new eye-catching colors of azure blue and olive green.

The third and most complicated new arrival to the Patrimony family is the Patrimony Moon Phase Retrograde Date, in a 42.5mm white-gold case and also bearing a sunburst “old silver tone” dial. The dial’s elegantly arranged displays, swept over by rose-gold hands, include a moon-phase, in an aperture at 6 o’clock, that is graduated to increments based on the moon’s precise cycle of 29 days, 12 hours and 45 minutes — and thus would require only one manual correction every 122 years. 

The other standout function is the calendar display, which uses an arrow-tipped retrograde hand to point to the date on a ring of delicate Arabic numerals in the upper part of the dial. Driving all these functions is the self-winding Caliber 2460 R31L, made in-house by Vacheron Constantin at its Geneva atelier, which is visible through the caseback’s sapphire window and features the openworked rotor made of 18k gold and evolving the shape of the Maltese Cross, the maison’s longtime emblem.

Pricing and availability on the new Vacheron Constantin Patrimony watches was unavailable at press time.