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Geneva 1731, born Jean-Marc Vacheron, a descendant of French immigrants Protestant, fled their country after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes (1685), according to the regulation of the city, is the son of immigrants, and as such does not enjoy all the rights of a citizen Geneva, Geneva, a city with a tradition of hospitality wide, was the origin and flourishing center of the craft, which developed, starting in the second half of the sixteenth century, a specialist in watchmaking.
That did not prevent him from opening his own workshop of watchmaking in 1755, at the age of 24 years, along with three of his brothers, Jean, the largest, producing boxes, Jean-Etienne, the second, made useful, Antoine, the fourth, assembled boxes.
Little is known about this first stage of Vacheron, what is certain is that the manufacture of watches was very important in the economy and society in Geneva in mid-eighteenth century.
In 1785, after thirty years of work, Jean-Marc Vacheron decided to entrust the responsibility of his company to his son Abraham, 25, already an expert in this craft. Then begins a period that lasted until the thirties and that was the most glorious in the history of watchmaking. Half a century during which almost all the major technical innovations.
The Vacheron, talented watchmakers, mainly devoted to the perfection of the object, not the conquest of public opinion, are in perfect harmony with the Geneva production of high quality. His clientele is made up of the French aristocracy, such aristrocracia be quickly affected by the French Revolution.
This would result in the watch industry Geneva, lack of market, with consequent economic damage. Later in 1799, are the armies of Napoleon to invade the city, during a dozen years, Geneva loses its status as a free Republic to become a simple French department.
Like most of Geneva watchmakers, Vacheron Abraham has struggled to preserve its small family business. After twenty years, decided in 1810, withdrawing to leave the place to the third generation of watchmakers Vacheron, his son Jacques-Barthelemy.
For him also, the first years were difficult, but Jacques-Barthelemy will not be disappointed on the one hand, is based on the contacts he has in Paris, where he lives one of his uncles, to strengthen their trade ties with France and the other part, expands the horizons of his company into the Italian market.
Beginning in 1815 after the fall of Napoleon, is a great relief for the Vacheron and Geneva, opening a new period of prosperity, Jacques Barthelemy Vacheron gets to travel tirelessly to conquer new markets, remain the most promising Italian, where their watches are already known and appreciated by the Italian company Bergua Cramer and which dominates the market for high watchmaking of the peninsula, introducing their watches throughout Italy.
t was in 1819 when Jacques-Francois Constantin Barthélémy know, a couple of barely 30 years, full of energy and with a long experience as a salesman, from age 14, she began to travel throughout Europe in the company of his father. Constantin’s personality affects Jacques, connoisseur of watches, and especially has a unique talent business, it saw its perfect partner, he could devote himself to lead the factory and François to market their watches.
Under this new asoiación Jacques-François Barthélémy and Vacheron Constantin, Vacheron Constantin was born. From this moment, development is exceptional reaching the best possible quality, combined with the most extreme refinement in the execution of watches, while, at that épca, the watchmakers of Neuchâtel based its production on the average price of manufactures.
Constantin assert his mastery to all teachers watchmakers in the area, which serves to be recognized, not only across Europe but also in the American continent.
In 1820, the incidence of dessrrollo technology, the demand for watches is growing rapidly, and to satisfy the market, artisans, although skilled and experienced, do not give a coarse, it is necessary to use a partially automated production.
Vacheron is among the first to adapt the sizes of their clocks, which enable the manufacture of movements in a more rational and use them more effectively. That meant no less demanding in terms of quality, in contrast, were adamant on this point, doing very stringent controls and checks on all the elements and parties to fulfill the selection criteria more stringent.
This obsession to boost Vacheron to make a technological leap of great significance, the organization of the factory wanted the production of the parties rely on outside suppliers, but Vacheron looking for a system that will provide total autonomy, and devised a very innovative project for the era, building machines that produce parts permitesen perfectly identical, with each caliber, which was a big step in the reliability, but for this project, there was a missing inventor, Georges Leschot.
The year 1839 marks a change of direction in the history of watchmaking, not only in the Vacheron Constantin.
The engineer Georges Leschot, was not yet forty years when he made his entry into the company as chief technical officer.
Brilliant talent and imagination, an expert in watchmaking, only needed two years to develop a set of tools including a device called a pantograph, capable of producing, with absolute precision, parties Identical and perfectly adapted to existing gauges. Tried by all impossible, but that Vacheron, Constantin and the same Leschot, firmly believed from the beginning. The invention is immediately awarded by the Societe des Arts, the company awarded every five years, the discovery more innovative in the field of watchmaking. The name of Leschot enters the circle of the Great in the history of watchmaking.
Above all, a commercial level, this invention will give the company a breakthrough, allowing you to move from phase to the manufacturing workshop, an advantage over the competition. Leschot machines offer not only the quality of the absolute accuracy but also the possibility of presenting a number of parties greater than that obtained by traditional craft methods.
After some years, all competitors of Vacheron Constantin, eventually adapt their production to this innovation, thus, the prestige it had reached Vacheron, hard match.
In 1843, Abraham Constantin, with more than 80 years, dies, the little shop that he had inherited from his father, nearly sixty years earlier, had become one of the leading manufacture of watchmaking in Geneva. Thanks to his perseverance and tremendous slaughterings had come to overcome the black periods of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars.
The following year, Jacques-Barthelemy left the leadership to his son Charles-Cesar, forward this trade since childhood. During that same year, 1844, the headquarters of the factory was moved to a more prestigious place, a building three blocks from the famous Tour de l’Ile, but, like his grandfather Abraham, the young Charles-Cesar faces to major difficulties, immediately after taking the reins of the family business.
The French Revolution is going to open a revolutionary process that will shake the whole of Europe, in 1848, The Sonderbund, the Swiss resistance to the liberal revolutions, is caught between cantons Protestant and Catholic cantons, where Protestants who lived victory. During these disorders, the new headquarters of Vacheron Constantin is hit by a cannonball, is seriously damaged the office Charles-Cesar. During this time, the liberal movements and cause an upset Italy dismiunución sales. But the company is present in too many markets to be affected.
Vacheron sell their watches not only in France and Italy but also in the United States, the Netherlands, Germany, in the Ottoman Empire and even Cuba and South America. In 1849, when Francois Constantin, sixty years, returns to Geneva after thirty years of travels through Europe, and orders begin to flow. Constantin die five years later, in 1854 and was until 1867 that cupado will be responsible for his nephew heir Jean-Francois along with Charles-Cesar.
In 1855, and to celebrate the centennial of its founding, Vacheron Constantin is thrown on a technical innovation of fundamental importance, the crown, which replaces the traditional key-wound. It had been patented, just ten years earlier, by Philippe Adrien but was little used. This improvement will reveal its full potential fifty years later, the birth of the first wristwatches.
At that time, returns to Europe’s rich bourgeois, the orders flow without having to ask. It is during this period of expansion and development when a tragedy strikes the family Vacheron. The decade of 1860-1870, they had three generations of Vacheron alive, ending in an unexpected way, following the death of Jacques-Barthelemy, in 1868, by the premature death of Charles-Cesar, also in 1870, the very early his son Charles, barely 24 years old, who ran the company had been less than two years.
It is the mother of Charles, Charles-Cesar widow, who guaranteed the succession, the technical direction of the company and move production to Leschot, the commercial and administrative leadership of Philippe Auguste at Weiss, a former banker hired by Charles before his death .
Shortly after the death of Charles Vacheron, the company developed quickly, becoming obsolete its old locale of the Tour de l’Ile. Moved very close to a building much larger and more lavish, the number 1, quai des Moulins, where it currently is.
A year later, the situation is beginning again to go from bad to worse, suggesting that investment in such facilities were excessive. The market was affected by the appearance of the watch American, causing a drastic drop of exports of Swiss watches to the United States, creating a competition between the two markets. 1880 was the height of the crisis.
Yet no doubt Vacheron Constantin and even adopts the emblem of the Maltese Cross, destined to become famous around the world. Indeed, the conquest of markets in northern Europe and Germany soon to revive the company by providing new orders.
On the death of the last heir to the name Vacheron, in 1887, the House finally adopted the name and Vacheron Constantin.
The same year the first wristwatches Vacheron Constantin are conducted under the watchful eye of the traditionalists, but are willing to replace the old pocket watches fell into disuse after the First World War. Since the armistice in 1918, the company is experiencing tremendous growth that is perpetuated all over the twenties.
In the general euphoria that lives across Europe out of the nightmare of war, Geneva contributed to his own optimism and his vocation as an international city that hosts the headquarters of the Societe des Nations. It is a time for gold to trade in watches and jewelry, the reputation and very solid Vacheron transforms your store quai des Moulins in one of the dozens of privileged politicians and diplomats. A world halfway between the aristocracy and bourgeoisie of the past to the present.
Before the Great Depression of 1929, the Swiss watch industry is suffering a deep crisis. In 1931, the Geneva workshops of Vacheron Constantin work barely 18 hours per week, sales volume increased from one million Swiss francs in 1919 to just over 200,000 francs in 1934. Given these serious economic difficulties Vacheron insists on not sacrificing the quality of their products in order to offer them at lower prices. Unlike its competitors.
Aware that the technology and know-how of the watchmakers can be usefully applied to other sectors, the House offered its services to the Societe des Instruments Genevois of Physics, for what machinery to produce tools, also tools for services and even for gas a shoe factory.
In 1938, after the crisis, Vacheron Constantin immediately resumed its exports London, Barcelona, Paris, Milan and the United States. In the spring of that year, King Farouk, a great collector of watches, visit the manufacturing Geneva, which has the effect of further increasing the prestige of Vacheron Constantin.
It is also in 1938 that Georges Ketterer enters the board of Vacheron Constantin, two years later, will take over the control and direction of society, and this year, the brothers Stern, manufacturers of dials, buy Most of the shares of Patek Philippe, meanwhile, joins the Vacheron SAPIC (Societe Anonyme des produits industriels et commerciaux) with France and Jaeger Jaeger-LeCoultre, while retaining their independence.
After the Vacheron, that of Constantin and Weiss, another dynasty is going to say, ensuring long continuity of management, Georges will happen to his son Jacques, who will lead a Vacheron until his death in 1987.
In 1955, in commemoration of two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of its founding, Vacheron Constantin made a real masterpiece, the watch world’s smallest, in which the movement measured 1.64 mm. thick and 20.8 mm in diameter.
A quarter-century later, Vacheron Constantin added a new brand to their titles, the most expensive watch in the world. Launched Kallista, superlative of the ancient Greek word meaning “beautiful”, is considered the most wonderful clock that may exist in terms of its price, is five million dollars for the period (which is now over $ 11 million)
The Kallista is carved from a solid gold ingot of a kilo, which obtained the 140 grams of weight. On this golden arch (the case and bracelet are modeled to adapt perfectly to the shape of the wrist), jewelers Vacheron Constantin set of 118 type emerald cut diamonds, together weighing 130 carats, meticulously selected to present an absolute uniformity in its color, its purity and brightness. This book maeastra, 6000 that required more work hours, was performed for a client that demanded, before a notary, that his name is secret, and that’s Kallista not exist only a single copy.
On the death of Jacques Ketterer, in 1987, and under a big impact, Vacheron Constantin that passes under the control of Sheikh Ahmed Zaki Yamani Arabic. Those who fear that this post is at risk of exotic distort the image of technical perfection and beauty of Vacheron Constantin, changing rapidly opinion. Yamani was going to a great expert, passionate about the watch to lead the brand, Claude Daniel Proellochs. The quality of watches and does not register any decline.
Yesterday and today, Vacheron Constantin’s creations are based on three principles, technical and aesthetic finish, being the oldest watch manufacturing in the world, controlling the process from research, the development of their movements, the aesthetics of each of its construction and manufacture of components, all made by hand.