For funerals, weddings and very little in between
By Julien Moreau, Geneva ·
A collector I once sold for kept a Patrimony in a drawer of watches he referred to as his funeral collection. He meant it kindly. They were, he explained, watches for occasions at which nobody should be looking at your wrist, and he wore them with the gravity of a man who had attended a great many such occasions.
I have always thought that a perfect description of the Patrimony. It is the most minimal watch Vacheron makes, a case of 40 mm in white gold, only 8.1 mm thick, with a slightly domed silver dial, thin baton markers, a pearled minute track and a date, and absolutely nothing else to look at. The movement is the automatic 2450 Q6 behind an open back, with a gold rotor and 40 hours of reserve. It is on a leather strap and good for 30 m, which is to say the washbasin.
The criticisms are fair. Forty hours is short, and you will set it most Monday mornings if you wear something else at weekends. The date is the one intrusion on a dial that would be better without it, and I wish Vacheron had left it off. At twenty-seven to twenty-nine thousand dollars, it costs more than the Traditionnelle, which has a more distinctive face, and more than the Rolex 1908, which some people will prefer for its name.
But this is the dress watch for the man who believes that a dress watch should almost disappear, and I count myself among them. Wear it to funerals, weddings and the opera. It is less convincing at a barbecue.