SIHH 2014 show, VC will officially reveal its new High Jewellery Vacheron Constantin Malte Tourbillon replica wrist watch. Featuring 418 baguette-cut diamonds on its body, crown, dial and even on the white gold folding clasp, the watch features an “invisible setting” technique that demands a team of highly skilled designers and jewelers and literally hundreds of man-hours for each timekeeper.Of course, besides the diamonds, the main point of attraction here is the oversized tourbillon carriage that takes a lion’s share of dial’s real estate showing us the famous Maltese Cross design that the brand is associated with.
This particular model, however, easily solves the legibility problem with just a pair of blacked hour and minute hands that look contrast enough even on this sparkling background of 174 baguette-cut diamonds totaling approximately 6.70 carats. Often (especially when you come to areally well-lit place), high-jewelry watches often tend to be quite difficult to read due to all this shimmering glitter of diamonds and polished gold that radiate back too much light.
As the other members of the Malte series, the watch is delivered in a tonneau-shaped body and seems to be based on their current White Gold replica Vacheron Constantin Malte Tourbillon (Ref. 30130/000R-9754)model, but has the rose gold of the original swapped for 18-carat white gold.
The movement itself, which is also tonneau-shaped in order to better fit the case, is, too, nicely decorated with Geneva stripes and perlage and even features the legendary Geneva Seal on one its plates.
Being a part of their in-house VC Caliber 2795 hand-wound movement, the tourbillon not only noticeably increases the mechanism’s precision, but also looks absolutely gorgeous thanks to all those hand-decorated parts that we can see through the circular cutout, too, framed with polished white gold and dozens of diamonds.
Even despite its extremely short lugs, the 48 millimeter long body covers a normal wrist from side to side, it may even look a bit awkward if your wrist is too thin for it. The movement, as I have already briefly mentioned, is housed in the same barrel-shaped body as other Malte series timepieces. While at 17.70 mm from top to bottom the white gold case is not terribly thick (at least, for a tourbillon), it takes lots of space on a normal person’s wrists.
Of course, the culprit here is the tourbillon carriage that seems to occupy the exactly half of the mechanism’s elongated body. Basically, the watch was designed not as a time-telling device, but rather as a vehicle for the exquisitely executed complication, so, the size of the case in this particular instance is not a design flaw, but rather a feature, like an elongated hood of a sports car or a disproportionally large cabin of a president’s limousine.
Considering the trinket’s price (the luxury item retails for more than $840,000 USD), they are probably absolutely right thinking that the total number of timekeepers will be drastically limited by Adam Smith’s invisible hand.
Photos: Vacheron Constantin
WWR preliminary verdict
Originality 5/5
Build quality: 5/5
Usability: 3/5
Legibility: 4/5
Value for money: 4/5
Vacheron Constantin Malte High Jewellery Tourbillon watch specification (ref. 30630/000G-9899)
Price: $844,300
Movement: Manual, VC caliber 2795, in-house, Swiss Made
Number of jewels: 27
Movement frequency: 18,000 vph
Power reserve: 45 hours
Movement decoration: Hand-decorated (Geneva stripes, perlage, polished-screw-heads)
Functions: Hours, minutes, tourbillon
Case material: White gold, set with diamonds
Bezel material: Matches case
Crown material: Matches case
Case shape: Tonneau
Bezel shape: Tonneau
Case size: 38.00 mm x 48.00 mm
Case height: 17.70 mm
Lug width: No data
Dial: Set with diamonds
Numerals: None
Hour markers: None
Hands: Blacked
Water resistance: No data
Strap: Black Mississippiensis alligator with alligator leather inner shell, hand-stitched, saddle finish, large square scales and with an 18k-carat white gold folding clasp set with 12 baguette-cut diamonds totaling approximately 0.79 carats
Crystal: Sapphire
Case back: Sapphire
What’s the most intriguing that Vacheron Constantin watch replica doesn’t plan to limit the model’s production.