The Vacheron Constantin Concours d’Élégance: a Debut Edition That Attracted Leading Collectors

On 10 November 2026, at the Hôtel Président Wilson in Geneva, the 34 finalists from around the world gathered for the awards ceremony of the first Vacheron Constantin Concours d'Élégance. Organised by Phillips in association with Bacs & Russo, the event aimed to celebrate the heritage of the world’s oldest watchmaking manufacture, founded in 1755, through historic timepieces held by private collectors. It was also an opportunity for the brand to bring its collectors together around a major project, and to forge closer ties with others who were, until then, unfamiliar with Vacheron Constantin.

Co-chaired by Aurel Bacs and Christian Selmoni (Director of Style and Heritage at Vacheron Constantin), the jury – comprising twelve experts – awarded prizes to seven watches in seven distinct categories, as well as an eighth timepiece honoured with the Jury’s Special Prize, ‘Best of Show’. The deliberations took place under the supervision of a bailiff, ensuring their impartiality.

On stage, the presentation of the awards and the medals engraved with the names of the winning watches brought to light personal stories and family histories, often passed down through several generations, evoking unexpected emotions. There was, in fact, no guarantee that these collectors, accustomed to maintaining a low profile, would agree to take to the stage. But this Concours d'Élégance also had the merit of revealing, through their testimonies, the full force of the passions that watchmaking can inspire.

This was particularly true of a 1930 pocket watch that won the Métiers d’art prize. Its current owner recounted how this watch – a gift from King Alexander I of Yugoslavia to his Minister of Agriculture, Otto von Frangeš, and adorned with the royal coat of arms – weathered the upheavals of the 20th century, from the king’s assassination in 1934 to the bombings of the Second World War. Hidden in the lining of a coat to evade the Iron Curtain, it accompanied the family into exile in the United States in 1947, before being passed down from generation to generation, becoming a symbol of courage and family resilience.

These treasures are often highly sought-after by the brand. Christian Selmoni explains: “We didn’t know if we’d manage to engage our customers. Some might not have wanted to be in the spotlight, nor to reveal publicly that they owned a rare watch. In the end, the response was incredible. We received around 550 entries. Some of the watches we discovered were among those we’d been tracking for decades. We call them ‘unicorns’. And when my colleague Morgan Maillard (watchmaker and style and heritage expert at Vacheron Constantin, ed.) rang me to say he was standing in front of one of them, we couldn’t believe our luck.”

Among the other winners is the ‘Don Pancho’ watch, commissioned in 1935 by the Chilean collector Francisco Martínez Llano and delivered in 1940. This unique piece, combining a minute repeater and a retrograde date, had disappeared in 1947 before being rediscovered several decades later and subsequently restored in Vacheron Constantin’s heritage workshops. It won the multiple complications category.

The top honour, ‘Best of Show’, went to a 1962 Vacheron Constantin reference 6448, a one-of-a-kind platinum timepiece featuring an ultra-thin hand-wound movement and a minute repeater. Its 36 mm case, silver-toned dial punctuated with diamond hour-markers and impressive condition made it an exceptional testament to the manufacture’s craftsmanship.

Whilst the brand has not yet announced a second edition, its success amongst major collectors was undeniable.