I’ll make no bones about the fact that Christian Selmoni is one of my favourite individuals in the watch world to interview. The veteran style and heritage director of 30+ years is Mr Vacheron Constantin himself, a permanent besuited fixture at the maison’s Watches & Wonders booth and launch parties, throwing out pearls of horological wisdom to all-comers like confetti. He’s forgotten more about watchmaking than you or I will ever know.
There’s no one better placed to walk us through a landmark year for Vacheron Constantin, which celebrates its 270th anniversary in 2025. Despite the brand’s age, it continues to move with the times while keeping one eye on preserving the watchmaking craft that first brought it renown.
Selmoni gives us the details of what the rest of the year has in store…
Ben Winstanley: This year is a huge milestone for Vacheron Constantin as the maison is celebrating its 270th anniversary. What does it mean to be the oldest watch manufacture in continual production?
Christian Selmoni: On the one hand, you might say that 270 years old isn’t the biggest anniversary, but I think what’s really important in this celebration is to talk about the legacy of Vacheron Constantin and to highlight its importance through this year of non-stop activity.
What it means to be the oldest watch manufacture in continual production is the responsibility to index and preserve as much information as possible about our past for the future – to act as a very precious and linear connection between today and where we came from in the middle of the 18th century. We have an extensive archive of documents that stretches back to our very first watches, so we know more or less everything there is to know about our history, which of course is a permanent source of inspiration. So I think 270 years is a perfect opportunity to showcase the company’s resilience, but also how creative and innovative it has been in order to survive during difficult times. I think one of our most important missions going forward is to really continue that story.
Christian Selmoni has worked at Vacheron Constantin for 30+ years. He is now the maison’s style and heritage director, overseeing much of Vacheron’s product range as well as its extensive archives.
BW: I think the idea of legacy as responsibility is at the heart of everything Vacheron does, particularly preserving the watchmaking craft.
CS: Exactly. If we turn our eyes back to the early years of the maison, you see that from the very beginning Vacheron Constantin has sets various standards in terms of watchmaking art – and by watchmaking art I would say for example the likes of high complications with hand finishing. When speaking about craftsmanship, what’s also great to see is that Vacheron Constantin started very early, around the end of the 18th century and early 19th century, to develop a mastery in the decorative crafts, or métiers d’art as we would say. I think this double mastery is something pretty unique in the world of haute horology, and I think this is a strong point of differentiation between ourselves and other legacy brands.
Now more than ever, it’s important to keep these crafts alive by transferring these skills to the next generation, because it’s the essence of watchmaking; it’s the very notion of craftsmanship. For example, there are several excellent watchmaking schools, but for crafts like hand bevelling, perlage, Côtes de Genève stripes, we had to develop our own training department to teach our watchmakers how to be able to work on our movements to our standards.
I think on a more global scale this raises the question about what is luxury in general? We all have different definitions of luxury, but I think for myself a luxury product is a beautiful object made by the hands of skilled craftsmen and women, which can be repaired over time and last decades, if not centuries. I think that feeds into Vacheron Constantin’s philosophy.
We all have different definitions of luxury, but for myself a luxury product is a beautiful object made by the hands of skilled craftsmen and women
BW: Vacheron has such an eclectic archive of extraordinary watches. I wonder if there is a way that you can distill that into maybe one collection or a moment in time?
CS: I think what is just simply amazing is the diversity of watchmaking art throughout our collections. You have dress watches, sports watches, complicated watches, observatory watches, chronometers, métiers d’art watches, etc. And I do think one thing which is of particular importance to Vacheron Constantin, outside of this notion of craftsmanship, is the diversity of watchmaking style. Without naming any names, we aren’t one of those brands that has just one iconic model, but instead we’ve developed our collections quite evenly through the years. So this is a very long way of saying that it’s very hard for me to mention one collection or one type of watch that would be in a way the kind of emblematic Vacheron Constantin timepiece, in terms of design identity. However, what I can say is if I go through the decades, I think the middle of the 1940s until the end of the 1950s, I think that still remains a defining era in watch design.
Before WWII, wristwatches were still very much influenced by pocket watches but right after the war, we see the emergence of the modern era which brought with it totally different aesthetics very much driven by elegance and pureness, a kind of sophistication. I think that this decade is still highly influential.
To answer your question, if you ask me which Vacheron Constantin is the purest expression of our identity, my answer would be the Patrimony collection.
It encapsulates this very unique combination of elegance and sophistication that we first saw in post-WWII watches. I think it’s a totally different challenge when you have to design a simple timepiece, there’s a kind of magic or a balancing act in perfecting the smallest details, and in this respect we were quite successful when we created the Patrimony.
BW: What can you tell us about the maison’s plans for the anniversary? We know about the very exciting return to the 222, which I’d love to hear more about…
CS: Well, as you have mentioned, we are starting this anniversary year with the launch of the Historiques 222 finished in steel, which we are very pleased to introduce. In terms of other watches, for the moment we have to remain quiet, but what I can say is that we will have a full year of celebrations for Vacheron Constantin, which will include some very important watches, some very impressive pieces.
We have quite a phenomenal lineup of models for Watches & Wonders this year and then later on we will have activations around the official anniversary in the month of September. For the moment that’s about all I can tell you, but we can talk about the Historiques 222.
To kickstart Vacheron’s 270th anniversary celebrations the maison has reprised the fabled 222 sports watch in steel with an era-appropriate 37mm ‘Jumbo’ case.
Clément Rousset
BW: Judging by the success of the Historiques 222 in 2022, it felt like it was only a matter of time before you launched a steel model. Was this always the plan?
CS: As you mentioned, we decided to reintroduce the 222 in 2022 as an idea of playing with the numbers. We actually had a lot of discussions internally about which of the original 222 models we were going to relaunch. The natural candidate was the 222 ‘Jumbo’ 37mm in steel because that one is certainly the most sought after by collectors. But we had other options as well, like the steel and gold, for example.
Ultimately, we settled on the yellow gold for several reasons: it’s certainly the most exclusive version of the ‘Jumbo’ 37m, if I remember well we made a little bit less than 150 of them, but it also helped us anchor the new Historiques 222 in the history of the collection. If there’s one metal which is most fitting of the 1970s it’s yellow gold, and we really wanted to pay homage to this glorious decade.
We knew that following the launch there would be strong demand for a steel Historiques 222, but there’s a simple explanation behind the fact that we are only introducing it now. We spoke at the beginning about manufacturing our own movements and finishing them by hand, but consequently we’re not able to grow our numbers year after year. Basically, if we were launching the steel Historiques 222 in 2023, for example, it would have been a true nightmare for us in the sense that it would create a huge demand among our clients and we wouldn’t be able to deliver immediately, so that’s why we decided to wait until there was less tension in a way.
Of course, it’s also excellent that we can kickstart the 270th anniversary celebrations with this exciting launch.
It’s a different challenge when you have to design a simple timepiece, it’s a balance, a kind of magic
BW: Why did you opt for the blue dial for the steel Historiques 222?
CS: The steel watches with integrated bracelets from the 1970s, most of them had blue dial, so I think it's a natural choice for this watch. When we speak about the 222 with collectors and watch lovers, most of them are thinking of the 37mm ‘Jumbo’ model with this blue dial, so we wanted to honour this combination in our Historiques collection. We chose a metallic dark blue with a matte opaline finish, which I think also complements the yellow gold version from 2022. It was quite an easy decision to make.
BW: Could you talk to me about the new Vacheron pre-owned programme. Obviously this follows on from 2019 when you brought out the blockchain certificate of authenticity. Where does this all fit into the future of the Maison?
CS: OK, let’s start with the blockchain certification. We introduced the blockchain certification within our offer of vintage watches, so that collectors could easily access important information about their watch without requiring a paper trail. It’s definitely a plus for the collector, especially if the watch is being transmitted to another. It protects against forgery or losing a crucial document.
As for our certified pre-owned programme, the value of the secondary market was estimated at $2.65 billion in 2023, which is huge. For this reason alone, I think it makes absolute sense for Vacheron Constantin to create this CPO program because these watches will exist for decades if not centuries, and it’s important that we are able to offer our clients this kind of certification, especially considering the fact that we have all our archives and production registers, so we are able to certify 100% the authenticity of the timepiece.
The Patrimony collection, first launched in 2004 is an exercise in minimalism, but its simplicity belies its technical brilliance. For Christian Selmoni, it’s the “purest expression” of Vacheron’s identity.
Charles-Elie Lathion
BW: You have been at Vacheron for almost 35 years. In your experience, how has the brand perhaps evolved over your tenure?
CS: It has evolved quite a lot, yes. I was fortunate to start my journey with Vacheron Constantin in 1990 and as we know that era is certainly very important for the watch world in the sense that it was probably the rebirth of fine watchmaking. It was amazing to witness first hand mechanical watches coming back under the spotlight. Coming back to your question, I think watches in the 1990s were still very much designed and manufactured in the classic way of the previous few decades, so I think the biggest change on the product side of things is definitely the incorporation of a computer aided design. I would say that has changed everything. This evolution in digital design gave us the potential to explore new possibilities, new ways to test finishings, shapes, some things that we couldn’t achieve with traditional prototyping. The same is true of advancement in CNC machines, which enabled us to develop complications that weren’t possible at all during the decades before.
BW: I think it’s quite refreshing that your first answer wasn’t the rise of the Internet!
CS: Ah, sure, but I am product focused first and foremost. Obviously, the popularity of fine watchmaking would not be what it is these days without the Internet, so it’s impossible to ignore.
I remember in 2001, I first heard about the website Watch Purists from some friends. It was a discussion forum where this group of people were all talking about watches. I couldn’t believe it, who were these guys? My gosh. Taking macro pictures of guilloché dials and hand bevelling. I said to myself, “These guys are really geeks!” I thought that maybe I would not be that interested to jump into such a geeky community, but I promise you that in the months after it was the very first thing I was doing on a Sunday morning was to make a coffee and jump onto Watch Purist.
So, to come back to your point, the Internet has been such a fantastic opportunity for fine watchmaking to enter the homes of watch lovers and create a real sense of community. I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that designers or product people have been very much influenced by people who were commenting online at the time. Naturally we have evolved from those forums and Instagram has taken its place, but we are still able to spark a discussion and come together as a community. Digitalisation has its pros and cons, but I’ve always valued the power it has to bring watch lovers together.
The popularity of fine watchmaking would not be what it is these days without the Internet
BW: Considering your own journey at Vacheron Constantin, is there a watch that has a special place in your heart?
CS: Honestly, for me, I think the 250th anniversary – to return to anniversaries – was a real cornerstone moment in the modern history of Vacheron Constantin and a springboard into everything we’ve achieved since in grand complications.
I was appointed product director in 2001 and my first job was to take charge of the development of all the watches for the anniversary. For four years I worked on these watches, together with our engineers and watchmakers, so for this reason it’s a collection that’s very close to my heart.
One of the watches we developed was the phenomenal Vacheron Constantin Tour de L’Ile grand complication – at the time, the most complicated wristwatch ever made. It had 16 complications spread across two dials, with a movement consisting of 834 components, and what I can say is that the community of engineers, designers, dial makers, case makers, everyone who worked on this watch, we never had any kind of arguments or things like that. Everyone was super focused on reaching the highest level. It’s a real highlight of my career.
BW: I know from our discussions in the past that you are interested in high-end audio. What led you into this passion, and what similarities are there between the worlds of audio and watches?
CS: As you're mentioning, high-end audio has been one of my passions for a very long time, I think maybe from the middle of the 1970s, probably because I loved records and listening to music. So this is how I ended up immersing myself in audio. But I do think this is a super question because I fully agree with you that there are obvious connections between the two universes in the sense that what I do collect – my amplifier, for example uses vacuum tubes – is antiquated technology from the 1930s that is totally obsolete. But, for me, it’s so beautiful, the sound is so good when you listen to vinyl that it’s worth it.
I also have a British turntable called a Michell Gyro ‘Spider Edition’, which has a kind of spring-loaded suspension system attached to a weighted sub chassis to act as a vibration sink and to increase the force. Honestly, I don’t know if the design was influenced by watchmaking, but using brass weights below the platter in order to increase the weight and the force, I think it's super similar to gyroscopic movements.
I think what’s super interesting about this is, together with mechanical watches, these are probably the last fully analogue beautiful objects that you can use and enjoy today.
For more information, see vacheron-constantin.com
