Collector's Special -Vacheron Constantin Open Worked Malte Tourbillon (2003)

Featuring a curved-sided “tonneau” case in either 18K pink gold or 950 platinum, this exceptional timepiece demonstrates just how masterfully technology and design complete each other.It sums up to perfection what over two and a half centuries of inspired watchmaking have taught Vacheron Constantin. Over and above its styling and technical debt to the Malte collection itself, it possesses an eye-catching personality all its own.Just like its full-metal counterpart, the openworked, or “skeletonized”, tourbillon does of course include the Malte collection’s “signature features”: stepped, fan-shaped horns, crown bearing a stylized “Maltese cross” symbol and sword-shaped hour and minute hands.

The Malte Tourbillon’s polished steel carriage, for its part, bears Vacheron Constantin’s “Maltese cross” symbol.Today, designing and building tourbillon movements remains as challenging as ever. Vacheron Constantin’s caliber 1790 movement was for its part conceived and made entirely in its Vallée de Joux workshops. Along with a tourbillon regulator, the movement features a power-reserve indicator and a pointer-type date calendar.



The movement itself has undergone extensive openworking by hand, acquiring an “airy”, stunningly luminous appearance. Both the case back and of course the dial are utterly transparent so as to reveal the movement’s every detail. It is elegantly color-matched with the case metal, pink gold or platinum, and its every component has been painstakingly bevelled, pierced and chased with a rare “peacock tail” decorative pattern.“Sword”-shaped hands show the hours and minutes, moving over an 18K gold openworked dial protected by a domed, ultra-resistant and glareproofed sapphire crystal. Three “baton” hands show the date at two o’clock, the seconds at six and the power reserve at nine o’clock.

A strap in black alligator mississipiensis leather, padded and saddle-stitched by hand, is fitted on the Malte Tourbillon case. Its standard gold clasp also features Vacheron Constantin’s “Maltese cross” symbol.

Reference:300067/000R-8954 or 30067/000P-8953
Caliber :1790, hand-wound mechanical, with tourbillon regulator
Dial indications:Hours, minutes, seconds, 31-day analogue date calendar, power-reserve indicator
Movement thickness:6.1 mm
Movement :dimensions 27.37 x 29.30 mm, tonneau shaped
Jewelling:27
Power reserve:> 55 hours
Rate frequency:18,000 v.p.h.

Case:18K pink 5N or 950 platinum
Water resistance:to 30 m (about 100 feet)
Dial:Openworked and bevelled, with satin-finished circular areas, opaline silvered hour markers
Strap:Padded and hand-stitched alligator mississipiensis leather
Clasp:Standard clasp in 18K rose 5N gold or 950 platinum matching the case