Total Eclipse of the Heart: Vacheron Constantin Celebrates the Patrimony’s 20th Birthday with Ora Ito
The family of formal watches gets even more minimalist thanks to a collaboration with French designer Ora Ito.
To mark the auspicious occasion of the 20th anniversary of the Patrimony collection, Vacheron Constantin has just announced a new limited-edition “One of Not Many” Patrimony self-winding watch created in collaboration with the French designer Ora Ito.
Ito is an aesthetic polymath who has worked with brands like Swatch, Heineken, Pucci, and Davidoff. In fact, his prodigious talent has become a brand – Ora-ïto – itself.
Since both Vacheron Constantin and Ora Ito are always reinventing and improving themselves, we thought it would be fun to look back on some of the Patrimony’s greatest hits over the years.
2004: Original Recipe
Vacheron Constantin launched the ultra-thin and elegant Patrimony in 2004. Even though the watch’s design was inspired by the brand’s mid-20th century dress watches, when the collection debuted, it still managed to be ahead of its time in many ways.
Remember, the early aughts were marked by extraordinary excess (case-in-point: both the oversized Panerai Luminor Marina Tantalium PAM00172 from 2003, which had a case made from tantalum and titanium, and the diamond-encrusted Roger Dubuis’ Too Much from 2004), so ultra-thin watches were not on many people’s radars.
Moreover, even though the original Patrimony was not marketed as such, the 2004 collection is an early example of the gender-neutral movement in watchmaking.
2009: It’s Complicated
Five years after the original minimalist formula Patrimony, Vacheron Constantin decided to integrate a minute repeating complication into the category. The result was the Patrimony Calibre 1731, and at the time it was the world’s thinnest minute repeater.
The collection would go on to include other complications, like perpetual calendars, moonphase indicators, and retrograde displays.
2012: In Holy Patrimony
The next marriage between technical proficiency and streamlined design was the Vacheron Constantin Patrimony Traditionnelle 14-Day Tourbillon, a rose gold masterpiece featuring a tourbillon inside a Maltese Cross-inspired cage.
Its slender silhouette made the 42mm case sit on the wrist like a Saville Row tailored cuff. And even though it was “only” a dress watch, its Calibre 2260 automatic movement provided an incredible two-week power reserve thanks to its four barrels.
2024: Watching the Wonders
Vacheron Constantin kicked off the Patrimony’s 20th anniversary with a trio of new models launched at Watches and Wonders 2024 this past April.
Two of these releases were manual winding editions that heralded a new direction for the collection by featuring a more refined 39mm case size, a retro old-silver-toned dial, and strap colors (olive green and azure blue). The most notable new change was the option of a customizable caseback.
Once again, the brand was bucking the trend toward timepieces as commodities that need to be stickered up and kept with their original box and papers in order to preserve their value as investments. Instead, these Patrimony models provide the wearer with a more personal connection to their watch.
2024: Not One of Many
Vacheron Constantin’s long-standing “One of Not Many” program is all about working with a diverse crew of singular creative spirits. Ora Ïto is one of these talents.
A self-taught, multi-disciplinary designer, Ito calls his aesthetic “simplexity.” In theory, this sensibility balances minimalism with the complexity of the watch’s mechanical movement. In practice, the Ora-ïto Patrimony Self-winding symbolizes how effortless a finely tuned instrument should feel.
Thus, the new 100-piece limited edition Ora-ïto Patrimony Self-winding is a monochrome timepiece that offers vintage styling in a 40mm yellow gold case, a matching yellow gold cambered (arched) dial decorated with concentric circles, and a supple calfskin leather strap embossed with 1970s style motifs.
Why decorate the dial with concentric circles that seem perfectly sculpted to catch the light? Ora Ito, who is also an astronomy enthusiast, explained in the press release for the new Patrimony: “This circular movement of light refers to the Baily's [Beads effect], a spectacular phenomenon that accompanies an eclipse of the Sun by the Moon.”
Flip the watch over and look through the sapphire caseback to see the in-house, self-winding Calibre 2450 movement with hours, minutes, seconds, high decorations, a 40-hour power reserve, and a date function (positioned at 6 o’clock)
For more information, including pricing, check out the Vacheron Constantin website.