Vacheron Constantin

Rare Mercator

 

A friend sent me some wrist shot photographs of his Mercator America and has kindly given me permission to post them here. This watch is from a limited edition of 10 watches made for the North American market in 2003. The enamel dial depicts the North American continent. The 36 mm case is made of platinum. This was one of the last series of Mercator watches made, for in 2004 Vacheron Constantin introduced another outstanding line of "map" watches with an alternative time-telling display, the Tribute to Great Explorers.

This is one of my all-time favorite Vacheron Constantin watches: The case pays tribute to a vintage model (ref 4735); the movement is the classic caliber 1120, one of the finest and thinnest automatic movements ever produced; the enamel dial is a work of art and beautifully combines the interesting complication (retrograding hours and minutes, and the hour hand jumps from one hour to the next) with the evocative "compass" hand tracing an arc, as a nautical navigator would do on a map to plot his course.

If one watch could epitomize what Vacheron Constantin is all about, this is it.

Bill

Nicolas, what are you waiting for?
This message has been edited by WHL on 2010-07-05 03:59:22