Vacheron Constantin launches single-piece edition timepiece with new open-faced sapphire dial
This, is in addition to the decoration and hand-finishing of Calibre 2757 S, which comprises almost 700 components including a complex sapphire dial and the sapphire back of the 45mm 5N pink gold case.
Image courtesy of Vacheron Constantin.
As the aesthetic signature of the new Les Cabinotiers Temporis Duo Grand Complication Openface, the 0.5mm thick transparent sapphire dial is distinguished by a highly complex mix of finishes featuring polished and frosted surfaces on the counters, hour markers treated with grey NAC and chronograph markers that are engraved and inked.
The 30-minute chronograph counter hand and the two chronograph seconds hands are made of PVD-coated aluminium in olive green, which matches the green alligator leather strap which attaches the 45mm pink gold case to the wrist.
Image courtesy of Vacheron Constantin.
On the reverse side of the movement, you'll find a distinctive decoration where the surface of the blackened bridges have been hollowed out then sandblasted by hand to a very fine grain and edged with a mirror-polished sink.
As a result, the beauty of the movement architecture has been amplified by the contrast between the black bridges, its polished borders and the golden tones of the moving parts. There's even a homage to Jean-Marc Vacheron with the initials JMV engraved and held by a semi-circular bridge that has been round-polished by hand.
The Les Cabinotiers Temporis Duo Grand Complication Openface is available now at Vacheron Constantin boutiques in Singapore.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Vogue Singapore
20 hours ago
- Vogue Singapore
SG60: Watch brands collaborate and partner on special editions
You'll no doubt have seen the red and white logo everywhere this month. As Singapore celebrates its diamond jubilee, we're seeing a raft of special themed collections, commemorative collaborations and promotions. The watch world is in on the SG60 fun—no surprises, considering how much of a watch hub Singapore is. A fun fact: Singapore, tiny island nation as it is, ranks as the sixth largest market in the world for Swiss watches. That's just behind places like the US, China, Japan, Hong Kong and the United Kingdom. The style of these SG60 special editions by watch brands ranges, and expresses in particular ways the identities of the watchmakers behind them. Perhaps the most interesting is the one undertaken by Vacheron Constantin, which celebrates 270 years of continuous watchmaking this year. The manufacturer works on an exclusive, rarefied level, exemplified by its slogan 'one of not many'. Courtesy of Vacheron Constantin Instead of a watch, Vacheron Constantin has chosen to partner with Delugs, the Singapore brand of handmade watch straps, on a collection of limited edition straps for its timepieces. It's a reflection of how much the Swiss brand cares for savoir-faire, and a well-made choice to partner with a Singaporean brand for a distinctly Singaporean occasion. Just as impressive: a watch crafted especially for Singapore's 60th anniversary, and a good cause to boot. Case in point: Audemars Piguet quietly created a special edition of its Code 11.59 Starwheel for the National Museum of Singapore's fundraiser auction. The dinner and auction, to be held on 15 August, will see proceeds go towards the ongoing revamp of the museum's permanent galleries, as well as restoring and upgrading its 138-year-old Stamford Road building. Courtesy of Audemars Piguet 1 / 4 Audemars Piguet's Code 11.59 Starwheel Singapore edition This August, the National Museum of Singapore holds its first major fundraising event in 15 years to support the revamp of its permanent galleries in premises. Part of the fundraiser will include an auction, to which the Swiss watchmaker Audemars Piguet has crafted a special edition watch to mark Singapore's 60th anniversary. The Code 11.59 by Audemars Piguet Starwheel taps into the wandering hours, a connoisseur's complication that tells the time in a beautiful, intriguing way. This pièce unique is crafted in white gold and black ceramic, and features a special red lacquer dial in homage to Singapore's national colours. On the back, a 22-carat pink gold oscillating weight designed with a 60th anniversary motif. Courtesy of Bell & Ross 2 / 4 Bell & Ross's BR-05 Sincere White Lum Bell & Ross has partnered with Sincere Fine Watches, one of Singapore's leading, and oldest, watch retailers, on a special edition that takes inspiration from Singapore's red and white colours. The BR-05 model comes from the watchmaker's urban collection, and features for the first time a full lum dial with red indices. That means, come evening or nighttime, the entire dial itself and the hands (enhanced with high-tech Super-LumiNova X2) will emit a luminous glow. Courtesy of Bvlgari 3 / 4 Bvlgari's Octo Roma WorldTimer SG60 The Roman luxury brand recently staged a pop-up exhibition at Paragon Shopping Centre to display and celebrate its timepieces. At the centre of it all was the launch of the Octo Roma WorldTimer SG60, a Singapore-exclusive limited edition model. It builds on the house's signature Octo collection, defined by an architecturally-inspired eight-sided octagonal silhouette. This special edition comes, unsurprisingly, with red accents. What's perhaps coolest is that the WorldTimer function—which typically uses another city to represent our GMT +8 time zone—features Singapore marked distinctly in red. Courtesy of Vacheron Constantin 4 / 4 Vacheron Constantin's limited edition straps with Delugs Delugs, the Singapore brand of watch strap makers, is on the rise. It had a buzzy moment in 2024 when Ed Sheeran, in town for a concert, put a Delugs strap on his Patek Philippe watch. This year, the brand opened a first-of-its-kind boutique in Raffles Hotel dedicated solely to watch straps. Vacheron Constantin sharply took to the brand, and has worked with Delugs on a collection of 60 pairs of collectible straps for its timepieces. They come crafted in Epsom green and Baranil gold leather, colours selected for subtle contrast and timelessness. Each one comes stamped with 'Delugs for Vacheron Constantin' on the reverse, red and white stitching at the buckle end, and individual numbering to mark each pair.
Business Times
4 days ago
- Business Times
Ultra wealthy are piling into a centuries-old gold trade in Asia
[HONG KONG] In Asia's ultra-wealthy circles, some family offices are now bypassing the middlemen and jumping into the gold business itself. They are financing, shipping and flipping bullion like traders. Take Cavendish Investment, a multi-family office run by the former chairman of a Hong Kong jewellery company, which is allocating roughly a third of its portfolio this year to the physical gold trade, going a step beyond index trackers and vault holdings. Precious metals dealers J Rotbart & Co and Goldstrom are also trading with the region's ultra-rich clans. Cavendish sources gold from small-scale mines in Kenya and elsewhere in Africa, flies it to Hong Kong, refines it and sells it at market prices to wealthy clients across Asia and to Chinese strategic buyers. If this sounds like a 19th-century trading house, that's about right. 'It's a seller's market,' said Jean-Sebastien Jacquetin, managing partner at Cavendish. He declined to disclose the firm's assets under management or how much money in total it allocated to the deals. 'We believe we have a window of about a year to capitalise on this opportunity.' In the world of ultra-high-net-worth investing, gold had always served as a passive hedge against riskier trades. But in a moment when wars, inflation and central bank blunders are seeming more like fixtures, demand for gold has exploded. Uncertainty over the status of gold in US President Donald Trump's sweeping tariff agenda has plunged the market into fresh turmoil in recent days. On Monday (Aug 11), Trump weighed in, saying on social media that imports of gold will not face US tariffs – though the market remains on edge, as the White House is yet to issue a formal policy update. A NEWSLETTER FOR YOU Friday, 8.30 am Asean Business Business insights centering on South-east Asia's fast-growing economies. Sign Up Sign Up Wealthy investors in Asia have shown a strong appetite. Those in Hong Kong more than doubled their allocation to the precious metal in a year, according to a 2025 HSBC survey. On the mainland, the shift was also dramatic, to 15 per cent of portfolios from 7 per cent a year ago, the survey of over 10,000 affluent investors in 12 markets showed. 'Asian families understand gold more intimately than Western families because it's been part of the culture for so long,' said Joshua Rotbart, founder and managing partner at precious metals broker J Rotbart & Co. 'They know they need to make this investment as a business.' Some have turned to leasing it. Billionaire families in the United Arab Emirates and Hong Kong are earning 3 to 4 per cent returns by lending their physical bullion to local jewellers, adding a yield on top of the usual price appreciation, according to Rotbart and precious metals trader Goldstrom. They are turning a safe-haven asset into a quietly compounding cash machine. Others are entering profit-sharing ventures with Goldstrom and J Rotbart & Co. Meanwhile, some are playing the arbitrage game, buying discounted bars in Dubai and flipping them for premiums in Hong Kong, where demand is especially high and logistics are streamlined. Wealthy families can also use their physical gold as collateral to borrow money for other investments such as stocks, crypto and real estate, executives at Goldstrom and Rotbart said. 'Anywhere you go in Asia, everyone buys gold in much larger proportions than they do in the West,' said Patrick Tuohy, executive director at Goldstrom. 'People hold gold because they know they can always liquidate it on a rainy day.' Rain, metaphorically speaking, is in the forecast. The US dollar has been wobbling under the weight of a ballooning US debt deficit and potential interest rate cuts from the Federal Reserve. That's a scenario in which non-yielding gold's haven appeal is likely to shine even brighter, while a weaker greenback makes the metal priced in US dollars cheaper for most buyers. Deutsche Bank sees bullion averaging US$3,700 an ounce in 2026, while Goldman Sachs expects the rally to continue to as high as US$4,000, up from around US$3,375 on Aug 11. 'The hedge against the Hong Kong dollar is actually getting physical metal gold because Hong Kong is basically out of control of its own currency,' said Quentin Mai, chief executive officer of West Point Gold, a mining exploration company. For Hong Kong's gold market, there's also support from the mainland, the biggest consumer of the precious metal. China launched its first offshore gold vault in Hong Kong this year, making settlement easier for global players, and quietly reinforcing the city's role as Asia's bullion hub, just as Beijing intended. But there are limits to those efforts. For one, compliance concerns persist. Of Hong Kong's several refineries, only two are accredited by the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA), an influential trade body that requires firms to screen for conflict-linked or environmentally harmful metal. Most of the world's biggest bullion buyers, including central banks, institutional investors and luxury brands, only accept responsibly sourced gold from refineries on the LBMA's Good Delivery List. That can pose a challenge when dealing with supply from places such as Kenya, which non-governmental organisation SwissAid has singled out as a transit hub for smuggled bullion from other African countries. Earlier this year, the group said that the nation may have become a conduit for gold from Sudan, where a civil war has raged since 2023. Cavendish is working with precious metal trader Ramco, which 'does everything we can to source gold from quality sellers, ensuring we are compliant with Hong Kong law', director Gavin Wyborn said. Another consideration is that trading unrefined gold can be a very high-risk strategy that requires not only a deep understanding of the gold market but also solid connections with legitimate players, said Tuohy. 'When you absolutely know what you are doing, it's mechanical and very lucrative,' Tuohy said. 'But there is an enormous gap between not knowing exactly what you are doing and having a working process that's tried and tested. And that lack of experience can cost you thousands, if not millions, of US dollars.' There's also the concern the party may not last. After a phenomenal rally in the last year, even the most enthusiastic gold bugs may find prices near-record levels increasingly difficult to stomach. Cost-sensitive buyers in the region may find themselves priced out of the market if the rally continues to reach new heights, with lofty prices already weighing heavily on demand for gold jewellery in China and India, the two biggest consumers of bullion. 'We anticipate that in about a year, the market will start to cool down' as geopolitical issues ease around the US midterms in 2026, said Jacquetin. 'Demand will decrease.' Yet, for now, the profits are alluring. Cavendish and its business partners, for instance, clears 5 to 10 per cent premiums on each round-trip shipment. Prior to shipment, the gold is pre-assayed to analyse the gold's composition to enable export tax calculations. Then, unprocessed gold arrives at a specialised cargo terminal at Hong Kong International Airport and moves swiftly to a local refinery for fire assaying. Days later, it's headed to private vaults or across the border to mainland buyers, some of which are state-owned companies. 'Given the premiums people are willing to pay for gold, it's going to attract more people and bigger players,' said West Point Gold's Mai. BLOOMBERG
Business Times
04-08-2025
- Business Times
Swiss luxury watchmakers drop after Trump tariff shock
[ZURICH] Swiss luxury watchmakers' shares, including Richemont and Swatch, were volatile in early trade on Monday, underscoring the challenges for the industry after US President Donald Trump imposed a 39 per cent tariff on Swiss imports. The sector, which exported watches worth 26 billion Swiss francs (S$41.4 billion) in 2024, is already under pressure from a stronger franc and falling global demand. Watch exports are on track to hit their lowest levels since the pandemic in 2020. Shares in Richemont and Swatch were both down 0.8 per cent at 0825 GMT, paring back losses after earlier falling as much as 3.4 per cent, and 5 per cent, respectively. Monday was the first day of trading following the US tariff announcement, as markets were closed on Friday for the Swiss National Day. 'The impact of the US tariffs, if they stay at 39 per cent, could be devastating for numerous brands in Switzerland,' said Jean-Philippe Bertschy, an analyst at Vontobel. BT in your inbox Start and end each day with the latest news stories and analyses delivered straight to your inbox. Sign Up Sign Up 'We expect a strong negative impact for watches in the entry- to mid-price segments,' he said. The US is Switzerland's leading foreign market for watches, accounting for 16.8 per cent of exports worth about 4.4 billion francs, according to the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry. Shahzaib Khan, who runs a business exporting Swiss luxury watches, said many brands would not be able to deal with the 39 per cent tariff rate. 'I suspect ... there won't be any goods being shipped to the US until the situation clears,' he said. While Richemont generated 32 per cent of its full-year 2025 sales in the watches category, its exposure to the US market should be just below 10 per cent of overall sales, analysts at Jefferies said. Swatch, meanwhile, generated 18 per cent of its 2024 sales in the US, with its CEO saying the company had raised prices by 5 per cent following the first tariffs announcement in April. REUTERS
