Ep #66: The Lore Of Watchmaking's Holy Trinity: Eternal, Time For A Change Or Obsolete?
Listen to full episode :
As the festive season approaches, it feels only fitting to explore the holy trinity of watchmaking.
The big three, Audemars Piguet, Patek Philippe and Vacheron Constantin: the watchmakers hailed as the crème de la crème, the pinnacle, and whose watches come with the added prestige of being “trinity” watches for their owners. But have you ever stopped to ask yourself WHY?
Join the CP7 Boys as Parm and Andy take a deep dive into all three brands and unpick revelation after revelation about each of them until you’re asking yourself Is this even a debate?!
Using five unique criteria we scrutinise legends, myths, misconceptions with lost horological highlights and achievements which will be your guiding light to the answer to the most posing conundrum, is the trinity:
Eternal, Ready For A Reshuffle or Obsolete?
So buckle up and enjoy the ride as this debate get spicy, heated and downright dogged in this very special episode.
First up, the wristwatch checks, Andy is wearing his Jaeger LeCoultre Calatrava in pink gold, followed by Parm with his Rolex Explorer II Polar Dial 216570.
Now we look at the examples from the Patek Philippe timeline, following the order from the show, 1925, the first perpetual calendar movement 97975, 1932, the 96 Calatrava, 1969 to 1979, the Svend Andersen bottle clock which opened the door for him to join Patek Philippe’s Atelier des Grandes Complications, 1976, the Nautilus 3700, 1989, the Calibre 89 made for the brand’s 150th anniversary, and in 2024, for their 175th anniversary, Patek Philippe’s most complicated wristwatch to date, the Grandmaster Chime, then back into the last part of the timeline in 1996, we have the Annual Calendar 5035.
We now move on to the examples from the Vacheron Constantin timeline, following the order from the show, 1770, Jean Marc Vacheron’s company creates the world’s first horological complication, the image shown is an approximate example of what it may have looked like, 1779, his son Abraham designs the first engine turned guilloché dials, 1810s, Vacheron Constantin introduces pocket watches with repeating, chiming mechanisms, 1932, the brand collaborates on the first Cottier system World Time watch Ref. 3372, 1940s, they create one of the first wristwatches to combine a minute repeater with a retrograde calendar known as the Don Pancho, 1943, they produce Ref. 4261, a record setting ultra thin minute repeater, 2015, the Ref. 57260 pocket watch arrives with 57 complications setting a new world record, 2022, Vacheron re releases the 222 as a premium luxury sports watch positioned above the Overseas, 2025, the Kallista Ultra Grand Complication launches with 41 complications including rare astronomical functions and a Westminster minute repeater.
Last but not least, we move on to the Audemars Piguet timeline, following the order of the show, 1892, the miniature minute repeating movement that Audemars Piguet were first commissioned to create by Louis Brandt and Frères, now known as Omega, this collaboration marks the creation of the world’s first minute repeating wristwatch, 1906, their first minute repeating pocket watch as Audemars Piguet, 1920, the world’s smallest repeating wristwatch, 1921, the world’s first jumping hour, 1967, they work with Jaeger LeCoultre to set the record for the thinnest automatic movement, 1972, they work with Gerald Genta to create the watch that pulled the mechanical watch industry through the quartz crisis, the Royal Oak, one of the world’s most sought after watches, with the rugged Offshore created in 1993 by Emmanuel Gueit, 1992, Audemars Piguet acquires the pinnacle in complications movement manufacturer Renaud and Papi, originally former AP watchmakers who founded their own company in 1986, with AP taking major stakeholder ownership in 1992 to further consolidate their technical capability in house, 2019, they create a new model in the range called the Code 11.59, a question that remains is whether it signifies the dawn of a new era and vision, 2023, they create the Code 11.59 Universelle RD4, including a perpetual calendar, minute repeater, grand and petite sonnerie, flyback chronograph, and tourbillon.
In the final image gallery, we have all of the other watches mentioned in the order that they appear after the trinity timelines, Andy’s friends AP Disco Volonite, Vacheron Constantin Overseas Gen 1 compared to the latest Perpetual Calendar Ultra Thin with a burgundy dial, Vacheron Constantin Historiques American 1921 and the Historiques 1942, the Vacheron 333, Patek Philippe Aquanaut, Vacheron Constantin Patrimony Day Date and a Traditionnelle, Vacheron Overseas Dual Time with a blue dial, an example of one of the many incredible Vacheron Métiers d’Art pieces, Vacheron Mercator, the John Shaeffer Starwheel Minute Repeater Ref. 25881, Audemars Piguet Philosophique, Jacob and Co Five Time Zone, the original AP John Shaeffer watch with his name on the dial, Patek Philippe Cubitus, Patek Philippe 6119 Calatrava, and finally we finish with the A. Lange and Söhne Lange 1 and the 1815 Rattrapante and the 34 mm 1815 Honey Gold.
That’s it for the show notes, let us know how you enjoyed the show in the comments below, you will hear us on the next one.
