Vacheron Constantin Malte Chronograph

Born of technical excellence wedded to expert design, the chronograph joining Vacheron Constantin's Malte collection carries on the company's finest chronographic traditions of topflight quality and understated styling.

It features a hand-wound mechanical chronograph movement with traditional column-wheel construction and elaborately decorated parts along with an arresting engine-turned dial. Designed to time, record and display given spans of time, the chronograph stands in many ways as the quintessential depositor of the spirit of horology. Instrument watch par excellence, it was gradually developed during the 19th century at the urging of scientific and engineering circles, industrialists and even sportsmen lamenting the lack of an accurate and practical way of determining the duration of all sorts of phenomena, processes and performances. Watchmakers finally came up with satisfactory solutions, inventing a variety of new components and ingenious devices in the process. From the moment it appeared, the chronograph has being continually perfected and upgraded, becoming ever easier to use and ever more capable.

Vacheron Constantin lost no time coming up with its own chronograph designs and, by the early years of the 20th century, its designs were reputed for their reliability and good looks. As watches migrated from pocket to wrist, Vacheron Constantin forged ahead, coming out with its first two-pushpiece chronographs during the nineteen thirties. This construction markedly improved performance, enabling two successive times to be captured without having to reset the chronograph to zero, unavoidable with single-pushpiece models in the pocket-watch style, i.e. with the pushpiece fitted in the winding crown axis. Chronographs soon graduated from simply measuring the time a given event took to precisely determining the duration of particular phenomena, read by the chronograph seconds hand off a variety of specifically calibrated scales on the dial - tachymetric, telemetric, pulsometric and even productometric. Over the years, Vacheron Constantin has naturally designed and launched a variety of chronograph designs, some featuring one or more scales of this kind. The hand-wound Malte Collection chronograph, features a telemetric scale along with the more usual tachymetric graduations.

In a clear salute to tradition, Vacheron Constantin watchmakers chose a hand-wound mechanical movement for their Malte Collection chronograph: the legendary calibre 1141, a tried and tested design with an impeccable technical record, not least because of its fine, dependably efficient column-wheel construction. In the style of many an earlier model, the Malte chronograph features a 30-minute totalizer and a subdial for the running seconds positioned on the 3-to-9-o'clock axis, along with a centre chronograph seconds hand. Every watch movement by Vacheron Constantin is finished like a piece of jewellery, with calibre 114 no exception. A clear sapphire case back provides a fascinating look at its complex construction and magnificent finish. Along with "côtes de Genève" decorative ribbing and the circular graining of appropriate areas, the sides of its parts and components are "stroked" by hand with a file to create delicate parallel lines. Steel parts are chamfered by hand and their chamfer polished; flat screw heads are also meticulously polished. In keeping with solid, long-established traditions, these and many other craft techniques are regularly put to good use today still in Vacheron Constantin workshops. Traditional expertise and technical virtuosity also come together on the Malte chronograph's dial face, a true if discreet work of art in its own right. Made from a sheet of silver-finished 18K gold, its centre is painstakingly engine-turned by hand. The neat, crisp layout of its various features - hour circle with minute and second divisions, telemetric scale based on one kilometre, 30-minute totalizer and subdial for the running seconds - results in comfortable, immediate legibility. Along with two 18K gold and three-blued steel hands or pointers, the dial features six round hour markers and six Arabic numerals in 18K gold, all protected by a glare proofed sapphire crystal. In white or in pink 18K gold, the case embodies to perfection the Malte Collection's assertive personality. Its generous size and finely balanced proportions, "fan-shaped" bracelet lugs and round pushpieces, crown featuring a stylized version of the corporate "Maltese cross" symbol and pair of "swordblade" shaped hands all compose an undeniably contemporary composition, yet one that will in time come to be admired as a classic Haute Horlogerie design. The Malte chronometer comes with a fine maroon or black alligator mississipiensis strap fitted with a classic, prong-type buckle in 18K white or pink gold.