Welcome to our series highlighting the exceptional watches available through Perpetual, Phillips’ boutique service offering immediate access to the world’s rarest and most desirable timepieces. You can view all currently available watches by stopping by our London headquarters at 30 Berkeley Square or by visiting Phillips Perpetual online. Our new "Buy Now" button makes acquiring the watch of your dreams easier than ever.
– By Logan Baker
Some watches tell time. Others tell stories. The Vacheron Constantin Métiers d’Art “Les Masques” collection does both, and it does so in a way few modern watches even attempt.
Introduced in 2007, the series represents one of the most unusual collaborations in contemporary watchmaking: a dialogue between haute horlogerie and anthropology.
Working with Geneva’s Musée Barbier-Mueller, Vacheron Constantin selected a group of historic ceremonial masks from around the world and transformed them into miniature sculptures designed to live at the center of a wristwatch dial.
Each is faithfully recreated in hand-engraved and colored gold, capturing the spirit and detail of the original artifacts while preserving their cultural identity. The result feels less like a traditional watch dial and more like a tiny museum display case.
The 2008 edition – the second annual set in the trilogy produced from 2007 to 2009 – presents four masks originating from Japan, Mexico, Gabon, and Papua New Guinea.
As with all Les Masques sets, each watch corresponds to a different continent, reinforcing the project's global theme. Produced in just 300 examples across the entire series, these watches were originally delivered in boxed sets of four. The Phillips Perpetual team in Hong Kong recently sourced one of the 2008 sets, and it's now available.
Part of what makes Les Masques so visually arresting is the absence of traditional hands. Instead, the watches rely on the automatic Vacheron Constantin calibre 2460G4, which displays the hours, minutes, day, and date through four small apertures positioned around the dial’s periphery. With the time indications pushed to the edges, the center remains entirely dedicated to the mask itself. Suspended beneath tinted sapphire, the sculpture appears to float in space, its subtle coloring and engraving catching the light as the wrist moves.
Adding another layer of depth is a poetic inscription by French author Michel Butor. His text is metallized onto the sapphire dial in a nearly invisible spiral of lettering. At first glance, the dial appears empty aside from the mask, but when the light hits at the right angle, fragments of Butor's verse slowly emerge.
Each of the four watches offers a distinct cultural reference point.
The 18k yellow gold example features a traditional Japanese ritual mask, a form instantly recognizable from theater and ceremonial art.
In 18k pink gold, the Mexican-inspired watch draws from ancient Mayan traditions, its sculptural mask believed to represent the portrait of an individual.
The 18k white gold model depicts a mask from the Gabonese Kwélé people, used in ceremonial rites marking different stages of life.
Finally, the platinum watch presents a striking ceremonial mask from Papua New Guinea, believed to represent an animal or insect spirit connected to tribal ritual.
Taken individually, each watch is a fascinating exercise in the decorative arts. When viewed together, they become something more ambitious: a curated horological set that bridges cultures, disciplines, and centuries of craftsmanship.
In a collecting landscape that often focuses on incremental dial variations and production quirks, Vacheron Constantin's Les Masques stands out.
It reminds us that watchmaking can still be expressive, intellectual, and a little bit unexpected. Few 21st-century métiers d’art projects feel quite as thoughtful – or as complete – as this remarkable 2008 quartet.
You can learn more about this watch and view all the currently in-stock watches online at Phillips PERPETUAL.
Phillips PERPETUAL offers a boutique experience to clients for both the sale and purchase of fine and rare watches, in London’s Berkeley Square, Hong Kong's Pedder Arcade, and the Gstaad Palace, in Switzerland.
About Logan Baker
Logan has spent the past ten years covering the watch industry from every angle. He joined Phillips in Association with Bacs & Russo in early 2023 as Senior Editorial Manager, after previous roles at Hodinkee and WatchTime. Originally from Texas, he spent a decade in New York and now calls Geneva home.
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