WHL
[VC Moderator]
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Review-Vacheron: Watch Review: Egerie
We rarely mention ladies timepieces on this or any other forum, which is a shame. After all, the development of the wristwatch just over a century ago was due to manufacturers creating products to meet demand from women for watches that were both fashionable and useful. What was true then is also true today. The palette of watches available for women is extraordinarily broad: fun Swatch watches, oversized men’s watches, tool watches, high-jewelry watches, fashion watches, quartz watches, mechanical watches, and on and on. So, without further ado, an article dedicated to ladies timepieces…
Sing, Muse!
The wristwatch was invented for women to be both fashionable and useful. They conveyed status. They told time. They were beautiful in and of themselves.
Vacheron Constantin has made beautifully designed watches for women for well over a century. There are many examples of pocket, pendant, and broach watches in the archives, often showcasing the detailed work of the artisans of the brands in enameling, jewel setting, and engraving. In 1887 the brand produced its first series of wristwatches, a prizewinner at the Paris Exposition Universelle in 1889, which had an ingenious winding and setting system operated via the bezel, omitting the need for a crown.
The next significant step in the evolution of the wristwatch was the development of the tonneau case in the early years of the 20th Century. This was a break from the tradition of roundness that early wristwatches had inherited from pocket watches, signifying that the wristwatch was not just a derivative and lesser type of watch, but rather that it was an interesting object on its own merits. The tonneau case and variations on it would dominate when regular production of ladies timepieces began in 1912, and continue in men’s timepieces after they became fashionable after World War I. The pages at the end of The World of Vacheron Constantin showcase many examples of ladies timepieces from this era.
Fashion and function continued their dance as the ladies wristwatch continued its evolution through time. In the 1920’s and 1930’s, Art Deco motifs worked their way into case design. The 1950’s and 1960’s saw fine ladies watches achieve slimness just like their gentlemen’s counterparts, the effect being that of a gold bracelet that indicates the time.
Ladies Timepieces
Today, Vacheron Constantin has several approaches to making ladies timepieces. Most famously they make high jewelry pieces, exemplified by the original Kallista from 1979, and carried on today with such pieces as the Lady Kalla Flame:
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For the rest of Bill's review in VC forum, please CLICK HERE
