Harmony, understanding, interaction. These are the key words used to design and organise the places where the watches of Vacheron Constantin, which is to date the oldest watchmaking company in business without interruption for over 260 years (it was founded in 1755), are born. A company whose vision of time comes to life in two buildings of considerable technical, aesthetic, artistic and human 'means'.
The Manufacture located in Plan-les-Ouates, near Geneva, is the international headquarters: a high-tech, contemporary structure, inaugurated in 2005 and then expanded ten years later, designed in the shape of a stylised Maltese cross cut in half, citing the brand's logo. Administration, design, R&D, heritage, customer service, restoration and training are based there, while production revolves around dedicated workshops, including those for regulating, setting, complications, Grand Complications, Métiers d'Art and Les Cabinotiers, which deals with unique and bespoke timepieces. Over 17,000 square metres of steel, concrete, wood and glass, in which noble materials are combined with the sustainable nature of the structure and natural light, which floods the building through large windows, accompany the days of the professionals among whom the Maison always seeks to promote conviviality.
The same quest for harmony that, as a company mission, also pervades the manufacture in the Vallée de Joux, where expert craftsmen make the watch components and devote themselves to chamfering, rounding, smoothing, polishing and perlage. Patient and meticulous gestures that do not allow mistakes but neither pride.
Two different buildings, each with its own peculiarities, also sharing the same combination of tradition and innovation and the same motto: 'Do better if possible, and it is always possible'. These words of François Constantin, dated 1819, summarise what is still the spirit of the company today, after two centuries.
