Vacheron Constantin is the watchmaking brand with the longest continuous history, its foundation dating back to 1755. During its multi-century history, the brand has created some of the most exquisitely refined timepieces ever devised, a trend that has not stopped in recent times, as the present timepiece perfectly exemplifies.

Minute repeating watches are counted among of the most difficult timepieces to assemble, requiring enormous skill and equally copious amount of time. Only the most proficient watchmakers and watchmaking brand can achieve this complication, and in very scarce numbers. For example, caliber 1755 - the one powering this watch - has been made in 200 pieces only. However, not all of them were employed on the present model, but some found their way into perpetual calendar reference 30020 and 30040, or skeletonized ref. 30030. Only a fraction was used for the time only version - unarguably the most understated of the ensemble and one of the most elegant, thanks to its minimalist dial nearly completely devoid of scales but featuring an extremely suave two-tone finish. In depth research of the model unveiled the extreme scarcity of the reference in general, but - most importantly - of this specific platinum version in particular: only 18 such pieces have ever been made by the firm.

Denoting the enormous amount of attention the firm dedicated to the development and execution of this watch, the dial is realised from a piece of solid gold and the piece comes with two casebacks: a glazed one allowing the beholder to enjoy the spectacularly finished movement, and a solid one engraved with a geometric motif, Vacheron Constantin signature, case number and an additional blank cartouche which was intended to house the name of the owner (or a similar engraving), option which was not adopted by the original owner who left the space blank. It is noteworthy to mention that each one of these watches is technically unique, as the engraving on the solid caseback is specific to every single one, with no two pieces bearing the same motif.

Building upon its rarity and charm, the present example furthermore comes with a plethora of accessories that categorises this specimen as one of the most complete examples to ever appear at auction: not only it features the certificate of origin, additional caseback and box - already enough to warm the hearts of discerning collectors - but it even features copy of the original purchase invoice, from which one can learn the watch was originally sold by one of the most renowned retailers in Europe: German based “Wempe”