What's In A Name?

Vacheron Constantin Style and Heritage Director Mr. Christian Selmoni shares with us the creativity behind the maison’s latest curation

- Katherine Arteche

Vacheron Constantin recently concluded a unique showcase of two of its traveling exhibitions in Singapore. Made up of Les Collectionneurs and the Nicknames Exhibition, the presentation comprised more than 30 timepieces that told the story of Vacheron Constantin’s watchmaking history. Les Collectionneurs was an important roundup of the maison’s vintage timepieces, with watches dating back as far as 1940. Selected from 1,500 pieces in the archives, the highlights include an 18k yellow gold Chronomètre Royal wristwatch from 1967 with an engraved bezel. Concurrently, the maison presented a Nicknames Exhibition made up of watches bearing memorable monikers bestowed by Vacheron Constantin collectors throughout the years. Style and Heritage Director Mr. Christian Selmoni was in town to give us an insight into these timepieces — embodiments of the maison’s design codes of the past.

What's the objective of the Nicknames Exhibition?

We do one exhibition per year at the Heritage department, an exhibition of watches that are part of our current collection. We’d like to showcase watches from our heritage with the original language. So rather than simply displaying, let’s say, a chronology of women’s watches from the 20th century, we thought curating nicknamed selections is an original and amusing idea. Ultimately, we are trying to spotlight collectors and connoisseurs who give these nicknames to our watches. It’s also an opportunity to showcase some surprising designs, such as the “Sole” and the “Horn of Plenty.”

Since the designs came first, at that time, what was the motivation to even design watches in that way, to have them carry such features?