Traditionnelle Calibre 2755 Platinum

In Context

At 44 mm it is a large watch — well above this catalogue’s 40 mm median, and enough to dominate a narrow wrist. At 13.54 mm it is a tall case, and it will catch on a cuff. 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.

The movement is hand-wound, so winding it becomes part of the day rather than something the watch does for you. 58 hours of reserve is enough to set it down on Friday evening and find it still running on Monday. At 18,000 vph the seconds hand advances 5 times a second, the slower and more audible rate of an older design.

80172/000P-9505 is one of 2 executions of the 80172/000P base reference. Underneath they are the same watch; what separates this one is a grey dial and a platinum case.

Caliber 2755 is an hand-wound movement with perpetual calendar, minute repeater and tourbillon escapement. This movement is certified with the Hallmark of Geneva. It has a power reserve indicator on the back. It consists of a total of 602 parts. Caught between the desire to extend the frontiers of technical possibility and concern over the practical use of this multi-complication movement, Vacheron Constantin’s engineers and watchmakers came up with an original device to regulate the repeater’s chiming rate: a centripetal governor. The role of this device is to steady the rate at which the hammers strike the gongs of a chiming watch to repeat the hours, quarters and minutes in a series of notes. Without a regulator, the spring-driven strike would come out in a rush of indiscernible notes. The device developed by Vacheron Constantin goes further than the more traditional strike regulator – a noisy recoil escapement with a lever that is subject to wear. During the development of the movement for the Tour de l’Ile anniversary watch of 2005, Vacheron Constantin’s engineers and watchmak-ers sought to replace the strike’s escapement governor with a totally silent system that would reduce wear. A centrifugal governor existed, essentially a flywheel with a pair of weights that moved away from the centre as it spun to slow the wheel by increasing its inertia. Nevertheless, true to the tradition of a brand whose motto recalls that it is always possible to do better, Vacheron Constantin’s watchmakers preferred to steer their choice towards a centripetal strike governor. This device has two weights shaped so as to act as a brake on the governor’s rotating shaft, thus evening-out the energy released by the repeater’s spring. To achieve this, it uses the opposite centrifugal and centripetal forces. When the governor spins, the centrifugal force pivots one end of the weights outwards so that the other end acts as a brake on the central shaft to bring the rotation and the

3 other watches in the library run the Vacheron Constantin 2755.

Vacheron Constantin

Traditionnelle Calibre 2755 Platinum Silver

80172/000P-9589 · 44 mm

Vacheron Constantin

Traditionnelle Calibre 2755 Pink

80172/000R-9300 · 44 mm

Vacheron Constantin

Traditionnelle Calibre 2755 Pink / Slate

80172/000R-B406 · 44 mm