Vacheron Constantin

Seduction of a Chronomètre I have a new hero…and a new mystery! Those who have endured my previous entries on precision chronometers and the Observatory trials would not be surprised at my hearty endorsement of the scholarly work by Jonathan Betts of the ...  

So much to read, so much to learn. I will come back to it, but I spent 15 delicious minutes, reading it! Thank you! Nicolas

nt

Looking forward to feedback from VC. ;)

nt

need to come back to this post again and again Julian

Thank you very much for pleasant and exciting 15 minutes I spent this gloomy morning reading your superb post Surely the one I'll save and return to Best regards Damjan

This requires a whole morning to digest and appreciate I think. My 15 mins does not do this piece of work justice!

nt

This is another fascinating read and really sheds some light on the Graves story. I had no idea that he was so driven by the Observatory trial results, and, as you concluded, this adds to his credibility as a collector. It was not just about having the mo... 

and they are trying to get them going again since 2009, with not much success I'm afraid

It certainly leaves some questions in the air (did you ask Vacheron Constantin for comment on the presumed return of the 10 complication watch from Graves?). I also now want to read Perman's book, and I think I have a use for that Amazon gift card that ha... 

Officially no comment, but I don't necessarily assume a conspiracy because, as you know, the Swiss manufactures are notoriously tight with information. In this case, several reasons come to mind: someone on high goofed-up and they are embarrassed, or one ... 

Dean, you are indeed a watch (esp VC) historian and detective. Our VC Indianna Jones! :) Thank you for this superb article. Makes me want to read up more on VC's deep history. I will never be able to uncover any mysteries though. Cheers Robin

Vacheron Constantin's deep roots make it easy to segue from a discussion of watches to history to people and back to watches again. I suppose that is why so many brands try to purchase or manufacture their history.

Thanks a lot for sharing Dean, this was a very interesting journey through time and hypothesis. Cheers François

I'm glad you found some time to read the entire article. There is a lot going on in this story for sure. I think the Graves Observatory watch will surface at some time, if it hasn't fallen victim to some mishap. The real mystery that I'd like to solve is ... 

It's always tough without official confirmations and docs.

LOL, did you find the Graves' family motto, Esse Quam Videri, an ironic choice for the last section? It translates from Latin as "to be, rather than to seem", in contradiction of the First First Prize watches that really weren't.