Vacheron Constantin’s La Quête Du Temps: A Flex of Historic Proportions
In an era of unprecedented global interest in haute horlogerie, when each passing year brings ever-more wondrous creations from the world’s great watchmakers, it becomes increasingly more difficult for a timepiece — even a spectacular one — to stand out. Fortunately for anyone who enjoys marvelling at these creations, the watchmakers at Vacheron Constantin appreciate a good challenge.
The world’s oldest continually operating watch brand has been on something of a heater for its 270th anniversary, releasing The Berkley Grand Complication (aka the most complicated timepiece in the world), and Les Cabinotiers ‘Solaria Ultra Grand Complication’ (aka the most complicated wristwatch in the world), in the span of just over a year. In case anyone thought the R&D folks in Plan-les-Ouates were taking a much-deserved break, however, the new La Quête Du Temps clock suggests otherwise.
Standing over a metre tall, weighing 250 kg, boasting 23 horological complications (including two musical instruments and an automaton), and 6,293 total components, La Quête du Temps is a truly magnificent achievement in watchmaking. Currently on display at the Louvre in Paris, the centrepiece of this clock (although that word surely fails to capture its splendour) is a human-like “astronomer” figure that’s programmed to indicate the time with its arms while, in the words of the brand, “inviting viewers to contemplate the beauty and mysteries of the cosmos and the astronomical phenomena that lie at the foundation of mankind’s ability to measure time.”
The product of a collaboration between François Junod, the world’s foremost specialist in automata, L’Épée 1839, astronomers from the Geneva Observatory, and Vacheron Constantin’s in-house master artisans, La Quête Du Temps features six perpetual calendar indications, three moon indications, five astronomical indications, and several musical sequences performed on something called a metallophone and a “wah-wah tube.” Suffice to say, it’s the kind of thing that only a mountaintop aerie of mad scientist watchmakers could come up with, and one would need several advanced degrees to fully understand what it does and how it does it.
La Quête Du Temps is a one-of-one creation, and likely not for sale (although one wonders how many millions it might fetch if it were.) Fortunately for anyone with a hankering to own a wearable version, Vacheron Constantin is also offering the Métiers d’Art Tribute to the Quest of Time wristwatch as a 20-piece limited edition. The double-sided watch includes a new manually wound manufacture movement, which — like the clock — powers a human figure whose arms indicate the time as a double-retrograde display. Set against a backdrop of stars representing the constellations as seen from Geneva on the day of the Maison’s founding in 1755, it also includes a 3D moon phase and a sky chart on the reverse that tracks the constellations in real time.
The many skilled hands that created these pieces deserve full credit and some sympathy. While they’ve succeeded at the difficult task of creating something that is awesome in the literal sense of the word, they’re also going to have to come up with something even more impressive next.
Learn more about La Quête du Temps Clock on the Vacheron Constantin website.
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