Vacheron Constantin's Creative Director Christian Selmoni on harmonious watch design
Editor’s note: This interview is an old one, from SIHH 2015, and the Harmony is a watch that isn’t a massive focus for Vacheron Constantin right now, but the brand’s Creative Director, Mr Christian Selmoni, is one of the most articulate and interesting creative minds in the watch business, and definitely worth a read, especially as much of this speaks to the overall qualities of Vacheron Constantin’s approach to design and watchmaking. T+T: I understand that along with Vacheron Constantin’s 260th birthday you’re celebrating your own milestone – 25 years with Vacheron Constantin – congratulations! What was it like back then? CS: I come from a watchmaking family. When I graduated in the late ’70s none of us chose to go into watchmaking because we all thought it would be dead in a few years. That changed a decade later. A friend called and asked if I was interested in a watchmaking job. I thought, ‘Why not?’ I joined Vacheron Constantin on the 1st of February in 1990, and we were 68 people. Now we are around 1300. So I think that explains how difficult the situation was back then. T+T: It must have been a difficult time to…
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Diving is a pursuit — more than most — that relies on gear. Which is why it’s an area full of storied suppliers that are as much a part of pioneering and evolving diving as the divers themselves. Of course, watch brands fall into this matrix — but they’re a relatively small part of the picture. Suits, breathing apparatus and all the other paraphernalia are equally as important. Which is why this watch, the Aquadive Poseidon GMT, is such a nice celebration of this heritage. Aquadive, in case you’re not familiar, is one of those old names in dive watches. Their heyday was in the ’60s and ’70s, that’s making a bit of a splash now, thanks to their revival by the Synchron Group. And Poseidon, when he’s not busy being king under the waves, is a diving gear company dating back to 1958, which lists an innovative fully automatic rebreather, the MkVI, in its list of accomplishments. The brand’s bright yellow logo stands out on the dial. You might recognise Poseidon from their collab with Doxa last year. And while this watch can’t help you in the breathing department, it can certainly handle the timekeeping side of the equation. Steel,…
There is no designer in the watch game like Fabrizio Buonamassa Stigliani. He is sketching, pardon the millennial turn of phrase here, literally all of the time. When he’s being interviewed. When he’s in a room by himself waiting to be interviewed (I disturbed him in the act as I was early). And, you suspect, when he’s having his breakfast at the very break of day. “Every day of my life I am drawing.” That’s all well and good, and almost certainly well known by now. But this is not the point of this story. There is another angle on the man that intrigues me, speaking personally. His style. His individuality. So, when he told me in a recent interview that he has been wearing a watch for more than six months straight, I had to better understand why? And which watch was it? Through the process, I learned that evolving the Finissimo from grey to black, and from titanium to ceramic was far more complex a process than it might appear. I was with Bulgari in Shanghai for the launch of more Serpenti Seduttori, a drop-shaped watch case with an extraordinary ‘snake scaled’ bracelet. It’s typical Bulgari watchmaking for…
The Chopard Alpine Eagle is a watch that has roots in the 1980s when their St. Moritz model was released. It was during a period when the stainless steel luxury sports watch boom was in full swing. Case in point, between 1980 and 1995, the St. Moritz model alone sold 50,000 pieces. Now, the St. Moritz has been reimagined with a contemporary flavour in terms of its design, as well as a number of technical developments that make the Chopard Alpine Eagle a genuine luxury wristwatch and reflect Chopard’s endeavour to “treat steel as if it were gold”. Also, the dial. We have had this bird in the hand the last few weeks, and we can confirm it really is something. More to come. As a brief history lesson on the origins of the Alpine Eagle, in 1980 the St. Moritz was released by Chopard after being envisioned by Karl-Friedrich Scheufele, the son of the owner of the brand. It was the first watch that Karl-Friedrich Scheufele had ever designed, at the young age of 22, as well as the first sports watch and the first steel watch that Chopard had produced. Chopard have taken these points as inspiration for…
Editor’s note: A recent discussion in the office has brought up the rather interesting question: “What is the best watch for international travel?” LOTS of different watches were bandied about as suggestions and, of course, names like the Rolex GMT-Master II 126710BLRO and Patek Philippe 5930G were hotly debated as some of the best. And there’s no doubting that these aforementioned watches are absolutely brilliant at what they do, but — and it’s a big but — they’re also very expensive. Which got me thinking about the Montblanc Orbis Terrarum, because it’s a handsome looking watch, with a very useful world time complication and a beautiful motif dial, and it retails for around $8000 AUD. That’s quite a large amount of bang for buck when you consider that a comparable watch from Patek Philippe, for example, is going to set you back close to ten times what the Montblanc will. Anyway, our man Felix Scholz was lucky enough to go hands-on with the Limited Edition Montblanc Orbis Terrarum UNICEF, and these are his thoughts: When they’re done right, limited edition watches are great. They offer some exclusivity, membership to a special club, and that feeling of being part of something bigger…