Malte Small

In Context

At 28.4 mm it is small by current standards, in the range most wristwatches occupied before cases began growing through the 1990s. The 7.72 mm case is genuinely slim and goes under a shirt cuff without argument. The case back is open, so the movement is visible without taking the watch apart, and the sapphire crystal will resist everything short of deliberate abuse. Rated to 30 m, it is protected against rain and splashes and nothing beyond that.

The movement is hand-wound, so winding it becomes part of the day rather than something the watch does for you. 40 hours of reserve carries it overnight, but not through a weekend in a drawer. At 28,800 vph the seconds hand advances 8 times a second.

81515/000R-9892 stands on its own in this catalogue — no other reference here shares its base number. It pairs a silver dial with a pink gold case.

Hand-wound movement based on caliber 1400; now fitted with small seconds at 5 o'clock.

2 other watches in the library run the Vacheron Constantin 1400 AS.

Vacheron Constantin

Historiques Aronde 1954

81018/000R-965 · 31.2 mm

Vacheron Constantin

Malte Small

81515/000G-9891 · 28.4 mm