Historiques — American 1921

Since the 1990s, the Historiques line has brought together the most faithful possible reissues of historic models drawn from the vast Vacheron Constantin archive: watches the manufacture chooses to bring back into production while respecting as closely as possible their original proportions, dials and construction, rather than freely reinterpreting them. Among the models that best represent this principle, and that tell of its most distant origins, is the American 1921.

The original watch was in fact born in 1921, when Vacheron Constantin made a small number of pieces specifically for the US market — hence the name — with a solution as unusual as it was practical: the cushion-shaped case was rotated by 45 degrees and the crown moved to between 1 and 2 o'clock, so that the diagonally placed dial could be read by someone driving a car without taking their hands off the wheel. A detail born from observing the emerging motoring habits of the 1920s, at a time when private cars were beginning to spread among a wealthy clientele.

The model was brought back into production within the Historiques collection and, in 2021, received a relaunch marking a hundred years since it was first made, with new versions in white gold (in 36.5 and 40 mm diameters) and a limited edition in platinum: the cushion cases, silvered dial with Arabic numerals and distinctive diagonal layout remain faithful to the 1921 original, while the hand-wound calibre 4400 AS movement, with a 65-hour power reserve, updates the technical side to the manufacture's contemporary standards.