Vacheron Constantin launches global watch competition for collectors
Vacheron Constantin, in collaboration with the auction house Phillips, has launched the new watch competition „Vacheron Constantin Concours d'Élégance Horlogère”. This competition is aimed at enthusiasts and collectors worldwide and is open to owners of Vacheron Constantin pocket watches and wristwatches manufactured between 1755 and 1999.
An international panel of experts, jointly chaired by Aurel Bacs (Senior Consultant at Phillips in Association with Bacs & Russo) and Christian Selmoni (Director of Style and Heritage at Vacheron Constantin), will select the winners in the seven categories. The awards will be presented on November 10, 2026, following Phillips' autumn auctions.
Registration is possible from January 19th to April 30th, 2026 in Vacheron Constantin boutiques or online.
Seven categories for this first edition of the „Vacheron Constantin Concours d'Élégance Horlogère”
Each watch may only compete in one of the seven categories, with the choice resting with the watch's owner. Suitable pieces are judged according to nine criteria: authenticity, elegance, rarity, influence on the history of Vacheron Constantin and/or on watchmaking in general, provenance, technical sophistication, métiers d'art (artistic crafts), condition, and emotional dimension.
- Striking Mechanism: Pocket watches and wristwatches that are exclusively equipped with a minute, quarter-hour, half-hour repeater or a grande sonnerie.
- Chronographs: Pocket watches and wristwatches equipped with a chronograph with two or three counters, a single pusher, or a split-seconds mechanism.
- Astronomical Complications: Pocket watches and wristwatches equipped with a triple calendar, a full calendar or a perpetual calendar.
- Multiple complications: Pocket and wristwatches equipped with at least two of the following complications: tourbillon, repeater (quarter-hour or minute), striking mechanism, chronograph, split-seconds hand, full calendar or perpetual calendar, celestial map.
- Chronometer Royal: Pocket watches and wristwatches with the official designation "Chronomètre Royal", issued from 1907 onwards.
- Métier d'Art: Pocket and wristwatches with engravings, enameling, gemstone setting, guilloché or any other artisanal decoration, with the exception of skeletonization.
- Design: Pocket and wristwatches with the unmistakable Vacheron Constantin design, either in the case or in the time display – retrograde display, jumping hour, world time, etc.
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