One Of Not Many

Christian Selmoni, Vacheron Constantin’s heritage and style director, talks to Augustman on the intimate relationships between provenance, design language and technicality

- JONATHAN HO

WHEN YOU’RE THE WORLD’S oldest watchmaker, just about everything you do and every watch you make is taken in the context of a history almost spanning 300 years. In the time we have evolved from horse-drawn carriages to electric cars, just as many watchmakers have come and fizzled out. Augustman asked Vacheron Constantin’s Heritage and Style Director Christian Selmoni some hard questions about keeping the Maison relevant, especially when limited production means that every single model is scrutinised to a greater degree, and what it means to be the only brand with two integrated bracelet luxury sports watches.

With the launch of the Historiques 222, it makes Vacheron Constantin the only brand with two integrated bracelet luxury sports watches in the market. How do you feel about that? There are differences in positioning between the Overseas and Historiques 222. The Overseas is our growing series production “sports elegance” collection, while the 222 has to be taken from the perspective of history and heritage which allows us to revisit important watches from our past and reinterpret them subtly; analogous examples would be the American 1921 and the Corne de Vache. The 222 is not going to be another sports elegance collection in Vacheron Constantin.