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Lot Essay
Accompanied by Vacheron Constantin Certificat d'Origine and Extrait d'Archives confirming production of the present watch in 1953 and its subsequent sale in 1954.
Minute repeaters are considered the pinnacle of Vacheron Constantin's production of complicated wristwatches. Since the early 1940s until the mid 1980s, the prestigious Geneva firm focussed its production of minute repeating wristwatches on one model only: the celebrated reference 4261.
Reference 4261 was made during the 1940s and early 1950s and was either fitted with a 12''' caliber, generally recognisable by the subsidiary seconds, or the 13''' movement, as the present watch. Whereas the 12''' movement was fitted in a case with a diameter of 35 mm., the 13''' caliber was cased in a much flatter and considerably larger case, measuring an impressive 37 mm. in diameter.
It appears that no more than 10 examples of reference 4261 were finished with the 13''' movement, the majority cased in gold. During the last 30 years of international auctions, only three platinum minute repeating wristwatches reference 4261 by Vacheron Constantin, including the present one, were offered publicly.
The present watch, case number 328'062, appears to be the earliest example of this series in platinum and was originally sold in 1954. The following case number, 328'063, was probably finished in 1955. Number 328'065, the last watch of this series, is fitted with diamond hour markers and left the manufactory 1955 with a personalised inscription on the dial, reading "Mohammed El Amine", the last Bey of Tunisia, to whom it was sold originally for the impressive sum of SFr. 5'100. The latter was sold in these rooms, Christie's Geneva, Important Watches and Wristwatches, 14 May 2002, lot 149.
Minute repeaters are considered the pinnacle of Vacheron Constantin's production of complicated wristwatches. Since the early 1940s until the mid 1980s, the prestigious Geneva firm focussed its production of minute repeating wristwatches on one model only: the celebrated reference 4261.
Reference 4261 was made during the 1940s and early 1950s and was either fitted with a 12''' caliber, generally recognisable by the subsidiary seconds, or the 13''' movement, as the present watch. Whereas the 12''' movement was fitted in a case with a diameter of 35 mm., the 13''' caliber was cased in a much flatter and considerably larger case, measuring an impressive 37 mm. in diameter.
It appears that no more than 10 examples of reference 4261 were finished with the 13''' movement, the majority cased in gold. During the last 30 years of international auctions, only three platinum minute repeating wristwatches reference 4261 by Vacheron Constantin, including the present one, were offered publicly.
The present watch, case number 328'062, appears to be the earliest example of this series in platinum and was originally sold in 1954. The following case number, 328'063, was probably finished in 1955. Number 328'065, the last watch of this series, is fitted with diamond hour markers and left the manufactory 1955 with a personalised inscription on the dial, reading "Mohammed El Amine", the last Bey of Tunisia, to whom it was sold originally for the impressive sum of SFr. 5'100. The latter was sold in these rooms, Christie's Geneva, Important Watches and Wristwatches, 14 May 2002, lot 149.