While it hasn't been hyped yet, this is probably the easiest "rare" Rolex I've seen so far
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When you walk into Porsche's 4S shop and buy a new 911, they'll give you a long list of options with all the options you need to personalize. From the color of the paint to the wheel style, from the seat leather to the audio system... If you think it's a private order for a car, then everyone here is a younger brother.
In 2017, at the Concorso d'Eleganza Villa d'Este in Italy, a Rolls-Royce called Sweptail surprised everyone present, the car was not even found in the brand brochure of Rolls-Royce, it was completely out of the current product line. Rolls-Royce customized an exclusive car for customers, which is neither Phantom, nor Gust, Cullinan, it is completely different from all the products on the sales line from the exterior to the interior.
Sweptail
That's what customization!
The world of rich people is such that they go crazy when they find out that Rolls-Royce can also make a completely different exclusive car for you. Money is not a problem for them, the problem is that although you have the same money as me, you do not have my Rolls-Royce! So, the calls of the rich people came, and a department called Coachbuild within Rolls-Royce was reborn. "How much is a car customized for 4 years"? Do you know how low it is to ask this question? Because rich people who go to Coachbuild to order a car never ask how much, asking, it means you can't afford it! Four years later, the second fully customized Rolls-Royce arrived, this time called Boattail. My assessment of the car's appearance at the time was: perfect, even the prefix of the word "near" was removed. Now, a third fully custom model after the Boattail has been delivered, this time called the Droptail.
The second Droptail had a purple body
Stop! Isn't this the place to talk? Why do you say Rolls-Royce? Well, of course, it has something to do with the table, why did I say in the opening scene that compared to Rolls-Royce's Coachbiuld, the so-called customization of everyone here is a younger brother? Because starting with Sweptail, this Rolls-Royce that belongs only to you has all kinds of incredible customized payments, until this Droptail, even the table showing the time on the dashboard can be customized. Some people may think that this is nothing particularly unusual, Mercedes-Benz AMG has long been hung on the IWC Logo watch, but what I want to say is-
Have you ever seen a car with a Vacheron Constantin attic craftsman hanging on the dashboard? This time Droptail did it!
Vacheron Constantin Les Cabinotiers Artisan Flyon Timepiece for the Huntiary Ceremony
It seems that this is the first case of Vacheron Constantin's cooperation with a luxury car brand in the 21st century, and according to the brand, the last time a timepiece was built for a car was in 1928. However, because the customer this time is a treasure customer shared by Vacheron Constantin and Rolls-Royce, Vacheron Constantin also made a good decision: debut is the peak. Hang a quartz watch with a logo, then low to burst, the general mechanical watch is not a good choice, since you want to go to the peak, just move the attic craftsman to the dashboard.
Those of you who know me well know that what I admire about Vacheron Constantin is the entire haute couture service of the Penthouse Craftsmen. I've always felt that this is the highest level of the brand, whether it is movement design, functionality, or appearance – I'm a look-up, and if the appearance is not good, even the most complex functions are ignored for me. Vacheron Constantin did it all on the attic craftsmen. This time for Rolls-Royce customers customized is a double retrograde armillary instrument tourbillon model. Sounds amazing, right? In fact, it is even more powerful, after all, in the face of banknote ability, everything can be achieved.
The first is the double retro jump, folklore called "flying back", I personally prefer this title, because when the pointer reaches the end, it will instantly fly back to the original point and start walking again. This time on this loft in Vacheron Constantin, the interior and exterior are laid out, with the outer ring being the minute hand area and the inner ring being the hour hand area. Vacheron Constantin felt that this structure was more in line with the mood of the Droptail car, because it looked like the trajectory of the speed and tachometer.
The hour and minute are in the upper half sector, the inner and outer divisions
In addition, the structure that can be driven in this way is also another technology that has been released from a masterpiece, that is, the famous 57260 of that year. Remember the world's first complex pocket watch? That's right, much of the technology of the 1990 calibre carried on by the loft craftsmen on the Droptail dashboard is carried over from the 57260. This alone is very interesting, I guess rich people also love to brag B, this is the material!
The 1990 calibre has a diameter of 35.5 mm, a thickness of 10 mm, a swing frequency of 18,000 and a power reserve of about 58 hours. In fact, it was indeed developed by the team that operated the 57260 caliber, so it belongs to the complex movement of "Yan Chuan".
In addition, since the upper half of the dial is designed with a double retrograde function, there is enough space for the tourbillon in the lower half. Tourbillon technology itself is not so mysterious and high-tech today, but if it moves according to a spherical trajectory, it is still very difficult, after all, those flat tourbillons could not have imagined that hundreds of years later, they can still "rotate". And the watch caliber on this Droptail instrument panel is also very large, 43.8mm in diameter and 19.9mm thick, which is enough for this armillary tourbillon to run slowly.
"Turn"
One might say that a swing frequency of 18,000 is too slow for today's high-frequency movements that can generally reach 28,800? And I just want to say that young man are you too stupid. What does the tourbillon look at? It's spinning! Isn't it better to turn slower? Do you want it to disappear when you can't even see it? So I don't care how slow it is, as long as it allows me to see how the money I spend is moving, the money can't be spent in vain!
Being a loft craftsman is not a difficult task for Vacheron Constantin, and there was not a co-creation project between them and the Louvre, called "Wearing an artistic masterpiece on the wrist", which is very straightforward. This is how foreigners say, "Vacheron Constantin" is also a spelling of two surnames and it's done. Clients of this program can enjoy a visit to the Louvre paid for by the brand, and then choose their favorite pieces (even those from the Louvre collection that are not on display!). How do you know if you don't exhibit? It seems that there are people above such customers... Then head to Vacheron Constantin's workshop in Geneva to get up close and personal with the masters about how they want to customize this piece. Les Cabinotiers Artisans "Tribute to Peter Paul Rubens, The Battle of Angchiari" released by Vacheron Constantin in May this year is one of the works of this project.
The Battle of Angiyari and the original painting of the attic craftsman
In addition, there are also collaborations with the Louvre Museum of Art Masters, each of which is a masterpiece, except for my lack of banknote ability, there are almost no shortcomings. But the banknote capacity is not in place, that is my problem, not Vacheron Constantin's problem. If it weren't for the fact that my hand-drawn banknotes weren't realistic enough, I would have wanted to collect all those styles that opened four windows... It's just a dream, don't take it seriously.
Last year's Vacheron Constantin Art Master series "Four Civilizations" watch in ancient Rome and ancient Greece
The real challenge for Vacheron Constantin was: how to put this complex mechanical watch with a double retrograde tourbillon on a high-speed Rolls-Royce Droptail? By the bracket! Don't think it's the kind of inferior goods you found on a certain treasure, which is the standard for online ride-hailing, but it is definitely not an option for Rolls-Royce. Now there are quite a few models that can find clocks on the dashboard, from Big B Brother (Bentley) to Volkswagen Magotan can be available. But, how does this thing fit on a stand? What kind of bracket? After installing it, you can't take it down anymore, or can you take it up and down at will? This is where Rolls-Royce and his brothers widen the gap. The bracket itself must support the watch, secondly, it must be able to integrate the design style and elements of the entire car, and finally it is very important to meet the technical specifications of the instrument panel clock. The design of the entire frame is completely unobtrusive, and the craftsmanship is naturally impeccable, for Vacheron Constantin, it is not difficult to make a pure armillary sphere double retro tourbillon, but it is the challenge to design it into a bracket and put it in a Rolls-Royce that may travel at high speed.
Eventually, the bracket is fixed above the center console near the co-pilot's side, and it can be taken out separately, so... If you wish, this dashboard tourbillon can be taken down separately and placed on the desk of your large suite on the top floor as a tabletop clock. Some people may think that such a removable design is for anti-theft, young people, young people, the owner who can drive this car, generally will not go to the bun shop, can take off this dashboard timepiece, in fact, is the perfect display of the sense of ceremony and sense of technology.
The armillary sphere tourbillon can be reversed inside the bracket
In order to fully match the style of the entire Droptail, this time Vacheron Constantin changed the color of the 1990 movement to purple, in fact, the original case size was designed to be 45mm, in order to fit with the stand, it was finally fixed at 43.8mm. And in order to facilitate winding, the head has also been moved from the traditional 3-point position to the 12-point position.
If the watch participating in Only Watch is the only one in the world, then this Vacheron Constantin's dashboard armillary tourbillon is at least the Only Watch Plus version. Why? As mentioned at the beginning, you can tick everything you can in the Porsche store, so that you can mention a Porsche with only watch, but you can't ask Porsche to change the red 911 parked in the store to a touring version and sell it to you. Only Watch is a modification of the brand's existing style, and it is impossible to add a station wagon ass to the 911 for you, but the Rolls-Royce Coachbuild can! Each generation of its product is a new Rolls-Royce from scratch, and the only thing it has in common with the brand showroom is the Lady of Victory logo, and besides that, when you ask, we sit down together and finalize the production.
I don't know if you have noticed that each generation of Coachbuild products, whether it is the first Sweptail or today's Droptail equipped with the Vacheron Constantin armillary sphere tourbillon double retrobeat, their price will be preceded by two words "supposedly", said to be 12 million US dollars, said to be 28 million US dollars. That is: brother Dei, you are not even qualified to know exactly how much it sells for! This is the life of the top rich, when you don't have a deposit of 8 figures or more, your imagination is completely sealed.
The above is the first watch co-created by Vacheron Constantin and Rolls-Royce (to be exact, the first co-creation with Rolls-Royce). However, the Droptail model is equipped with the Vacheron Constantin armillary sphere tourbillon is the second car, the number one car has been delivered, on the super-complex Audemars Piguet Royal Oak, it seems that customers do not like the same watch brand. As for what brand of watches will be used on the third and fourth (a total of 4 custom orders from Droptail, and others please wait in line for the next batch of notifications), I am also looking forward to what brands of watches will be used. But no matter what you use, it must be worth seeing, after all, this is part of the life of the super guy, the question of "how much" is only concerned by the poor, and the super guy only cares about "Is it special enough?" ”
In addition, to break the news, to this level of super couture, it is really not that you have money, you need to have the same cognition and concept with the brand. This is really not nonsense, the world-famous hip-hop artist Drake has modified several Rolls-Royces, replaced the goddess of celebration with a celebratory owl, and was on the brand blacklist, after all, you are facing top brands such as Rolls-Royce and Vacheron Constantin, and there are many people who attend dinner parties with you, you are so nonsense, the brand will break off with you as soon as you bite your teeth. As far as I know, Ferrari and Bugatti also have a similar brand blacklist.
Drake's modified "Celebration Owl"
At the end, Vacheron Constantin gave me a chance to ask two questions about this partnership. My biggest concern is: Who decided on this table? The result went as it was wished, and there was no response... But what I can "leak" is that the rumors that the buyers of the first custom Rolls-Royce Sweptail were Jay-Z and Beyonce. So who ended up spending this armillary tourbillon is almost a character of this grade.
Sweptail by Jay-Z and Beyonce
Yu Weiwei (Sina Weibo: @沉默寡言的酱油蛋)
"Eggs always accompany you to drink coffee" & "Xiu Zhuzhai" brand founder. Love coffee, love tea, eventually love has become a career. As for other broader hobbies, such as: love watches, love shoes, love porcelain, love furniture, love classical music... Think about yourself scared...