The Timeline: News from Vacheron Constantin, IWC & MING

In this week's Timeline we move between three completely different parts of the watch world. Vacheron Constantin blurs the boundary between artistic craft and watchmaking with six spectacular unique creations, IWC dresses its racing chronograph in a bold combination of purple and Petronas green and Ming presents a world time watch that actually takes daylight saving time into account.

Vacheron Constantin Métiers d’Art Tribute to the Animal Kingdom

Vacheron Constantin has long been among the manufacturers that most clearly treat the dial as an artistic canvas. With the new Métiers d’Art Tribute to the Animal Kingdom the brand takes this a further step by bringing together six artists, six craft techniques and just as many animal motifs.

The collection is part of Vacheron Constantin's ”One of Not Many Crafts Programme”. The challenge has been to transfer art forms, which usually work in considerably larger formats, to the limited space beneath a wristwatch's sapphire crystal. In some cases entirely new tools and working methods have had to be developed.

The result is six concept watches with very different expressions. Feathersnake uses miniaturised feather work to create a three-dimensional snake, while Glassoctopus is dominated by a hand-sculpted octopus in glass. In Oraygami the Japanese art of origami has been shrunk down to six small manta rays, and Tigerbroidery combines gold embroidery with silk to produce a tiger.

Papercroc is an almost monochrome composition where embossed and cut-out paper forms a crocodile. Woodenwings instead uses miniature marquetry of several different types of wood to create its winged motif. Common to the models is that they use unusual materials that rarely, or never, appear within traditional watch manufacturing.

All six watches have a case measuring 42 millimetres in diameter and 12,9 millimetres in height. Depending on the model it is made in either 18 carat white gold or 18 carat 5N rose gold. The water resistance is 30 metres.

Beneath the dial works Vacheron Constantin's automatic calibre 2460 G4. The movement shows hours, minutes, day of the week and date through four apertures placed along the outer edge of the dial. The entire central part is thereby left free for the artistic compositions. The calibre consists of 237 components, works at a frequency of 4 Hz and offers around 40 hours of power reserve.

Through the sapphire crystal of the case back a rotor in 22 carat gold is visible, hand-engraved with motifs taken from the six artists' tools. The watches are delivered on calfskin straps with embossed patterns that connect to the respective dial.

Vacheron Constantin describes the six models as concept watches. No future production, availability or pricing has been made public

IWC Pilot’s Watch Chronograph 41 Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team

Ahead of the Singapore Grand Prix, IWC presents an unusually colourful version of the Pilot’s Watch Chronograph 41 Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team. The model combines an intensely purple dial with the characteristic turquoise green colour that has become synonymous with the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula 1 team.

IWC's collaboration with Mercedes-AMG Petronas stretches over more than a decade. Most of the special models have been tied to individual drivers, while this is an official team watch in the same spirit as the model introduced in 2022. The new version has been developed ahead of the Singapore night race, where George Russell and Kimi Antonelli represent the team.

The case is made in grade 5 titanium and measures 41 millimetres in diameter and 14,5 millimetres in height. The brushed surface is combined with polished details, while the watch is water resistant to 100 metres. The domed sapphire crystal has anti-reflective treatment on both sides and is secured against sudden drops in pressure.

The purple dial has a sunray finish and is contrasted by indices, scales and details in Petronas green. The blackened hands have Super-LumiNova in the same green shade. The day and date disc is also black with green characters. The recessed registers of the chronograph have been given a circular, snailed finish.

On the inside sits IWC's automatic calibre 69385, a chronograph movement with a column wheel that works at a frequency of 4 Hz. The power reserve amounts to 46 hours. The movement can be viewed through the sapphire crystal of the case back and is decorated with among other things circular Geneva stripes and a skeletonised rotor.

The watch is delivered on a matching purple rubber strap with a titanium clasp. The strap is fitted with IWC's EasX-Change system and can therefore be changed without tools.

The IWC Pilot’s Watch Chronograph 41 Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team has the reference IW388121 and is part of the regular collection. The price is set at 7 700 Swiss francs.

Ming 57.05 Comet

The world time watch is one of the most useful complications for anyone who regularly moves between different time zones. The construction does, however, have a well-known problem: daylight saving time is introduced at different points in time and is not used at all in many countries. The Ming 57.05 Comet tries to solve this with a new and patent-pending system.

The model name is a tribute to the de Havilland Comet, the world's first commercial jet-powered passenger aircraft. At the same time the watch marks Ming's ninth anniversary and brings the world time complication back to the brand's more accessible collection.

The solution is built on a bezel in two parts. The places that do not use daylight saving time sit on a fixed inner ring, while cities and regions affected by the time change are placed on a movable outer ring. With a single click these names are moved one hour in relation to the 24-hour scale, without the other time zones being affected. An aperture at nine o'clock shows silver-coloured for standard time and red when daylight saving time is activated.

The dial is built up in several layers with overlapping grid patterns. When the layers' relative position changes during the day an optical interference effect arises that Ming calls ”Comet Tail”. The rotating 24-hour ring is blue and black to distinguish between day and night. The daytime hours glow blue, while the night part uses orange Super-LumiNova X1. When the daylight saving function is activated the indicator glows red.

The case is made in 316L steel and measures 40 millimetres in diameter, 10,33 millimetres in height and 47,8 millimetres from lug to lug. The characteristic three-step shaped lugs together consist of nine separate components. The water resistance is 100 metres.

The Ming 57.05 Comet is driven by the calibre 330.M2, an automatic GMT movement that Sellita has developed for Ming. The movement works at a frequency of 4 Hz and offers around 50 hours of power reserve. Through the case back skeletonised, brushed and anthracite-treated bridges are visible.

The watch is offered either with a cobalt blue goatskin strap from Jean Rousseau Paris or with Ming's Polymesh bracelet in titanium. The edition is limited to 200 examples. The price is 6 950 Swiss francs on a leather strap and 7 950 Swiss francs with the titanium bracelet, excluding VAT.