The VC Patrimony Traditionnelle World Time

A good friend of mine and fellow watch collector, Alex Ghotbi, who is the Community Manager at Vacheron Constantin, recently published a tremendous article on the history of world time watches. VC has a surprisingly long history with the Louis Cottier world time – it made the second every Cottier world time pocket watch – though it is so strongly associated with Patek Philippe, who came in third, thanks to shrewd marketing and strong auction results (or are they one and the same?). Alex even tells the unfortunate story of how Sir Sandford Flemming came to devise the time zones of the world in 1879.

I highly recommend Alex’s article on official VC forum The Hour Lounge.

Also, a few weeks ago I wrote a short piece on the Patrimony Traditionnelle World Time which VC launched at SIHH 2011. 

– SJX

Something I did not know before – the baton indices of the limited edition Citizen Eco-Drive Ring launched at Baselworld 2011 are actually Arabic numerals on their side. This detail is visible below if you look closely. The name of the watch stems from the ring-shaped solar cell that circles the dial of the watch. This is also the reason for the open lugs and case side where the solar cell can receive sunlight. Another interesting release from Citizen at Baselworld 2011, the Eco-Drive Satellite Wave. – SJX