In Partnership – In-Depth: Ben Clymer, Eddy Tonkin, And Alexander Schmiedt On Vacheron Constantin's History Of Creative Complications

If you asked the Hodinkee team, and frankly most professional watch pundits or historians, who is having the best 2025 from a watchmaking perspective, I think it’s fair to say that most would reply Vacheron Constantin. VC began the year by giving the people exactly what they wanted with a stainless steel version of the 222. Nothing revolutionary, certainly, but a beautifully designed and perfectly executed steel watch that can be worn daily. It was a runaway hit, and exactly what collectors and the community had been asking for. 

Then, at Watches and Wonders 2025, Vacheron shut the whole show down with the Solaria, a wristwatch that required a full eight years to engineer and build, complete with 13 entirely new patent applications and an astounding *41* complications. The Solaria is indeed the most complicated wristwatch ever built, by any brand, in any era. If Vacheron had stopped there, with a killer sports watch that struck the hearts of the cool watch collectors and the literal most complicated watch in history that excited the cognoscenti, it’s fair to say no one could criticize Vacheron for taking an off year. Instead, they continue to roll out incredible new versions of highly complicated wristwatches like these three open face examples for its 270th anniversary, and this new perpetual calendar Tourbillon, complete with a new caliber. But we’re not done there.

How about an open faced perpetual calendar minute repeater in arguably the most desirable Vacheron case of the past five years, the Overseas? Or a gem-set, peripheral rotor Tourbillon? And while Les Cabinotiers high complications kept on coming, like with these, Vacheron didn’t forget what people wanted to buy day in and day out, and gave us some new dials in the Overseas, and some special treatments for the Patrimony.

Then, just a few weeks ago, Vacheron revealed La Quête Du Temps, a four-foot-tall, 550-pound, astronomic clock with 23 complications, two musical instruments, and over 6000 mechanical components. Indeed, Vacheron is having A YEAR this year, and we felt it was just time to remind everyone of that, because I can’t remember a stronger individual showing in twelve months by any brand from a pure watchmaking perspective.

And that got me thinking, maybe it was time to dedicate a good old Hodinkee office talk to Vacheron, and in particular, its complications. So I called up two people who I think really love and understand Vacheron in a way that few do: Mr. Eddy Tonkin, a world-class collector who has been around *forever* and has a particular love of Vacheron complications, and Mr. Alexander Schmiedt, the President of Vacheron Constantin Americas.

In this casual conversation, we run through some of my very favorite watches made by anyone – including some of the most spectacular and complicated watches of the 20th century up through today. The conversation is rounded out with mention of Vacheron’s latest release of the year, a trio of Vacheron Constantin Traditionnelle Perpetual Calendar Ultra-Thins, which put the cherry on top of a monumental 270th year for the maison. 

I hope you enjoy it, and thanks to Alex and Eddy for playing along with my little idea here.

For more from Vacheron Constantin, click here.