“Nicknames” exhibition at Vacheron Constantin in Paris
Hosted at its Paris store, Vacheron Constantin is staging a temporary exhibition of vintage and legacy watches for which collectors have their favourite pet names.
The plush atmosphere of the Vacheron Constantin Boutique in the heart of Paris provides the ideal setting for its most recent creations, while presenting a temporary Heritage exhibition this summer. Until the end of August, 19 models from the Maison’s collection – featuring a singular style that has inspired collectors to give them various pet names – are on show alongside artistic sketches illustrating these aesthetic analogies.
Dedicated to safeguarding Vacheron Constantin’s precious heritage, comprising around 1,500 watch creations from the Maison along with an exceptional set of company archives, the Heritage department pursues the two-fold mission of preserving this historical testimony and revealing it to the public. Its new “Nicknames” exhibition reflects the inventiveness and creative boldness demonstrated by the Geneva-based Manufacture through a series of atypical 20th century watches whose stage names have in some cases become legends in their own right.
Crab, butterfly, giraffe, horn of plenty, sole… Pseudonyms of various origins express the characteristic nature of a watch, generally associating its distinctive shape with that of an animal, a character, a monument or an object. Whether a mnemonic means of identifying a model within a technical nomenclature, or an Italian adjective from the first thematic sales catalogues targeting Italian customers, these epithets that have become part of collectors’ vocabulary have become indelibly entwined with the destiny of these exceptional timepieces.
