Vacheron Constantin has spent recent years dressing its Fiftysix in gold; this week the collection comes back down to earth, elegantly. Two new 40mm references — the Fiftysix Self-Winding and the Fiftysix Complete Calendar — arrive in stainless steel wearing two-tone grey “tuxedo” sector dials, white gold numerals and a box-type sapphire crystal, at prices that make them the most approachable door into the maison’s catalogue.
The Fiftysix has always been the house’s charmer rather than its professor — a 2018 collection built on the lines of the 1956 reference 6073, with its Maltese-cross lugs and mid-century warmth. The steel update sharpens the tailoring: vertically brushed lugs with polished bevels, brushed case sides against a polished bezel, and a grey nubuck calfskin strap that reads more Milan than Geneva. The Self-Winding (ref. 4600E/000A-H177, 9.6mm slim) keeps things to hours, minutes, seconds and date, driven by the automatic calibre 1326 with its openworked pink-gold Maltese cross rotor, for CHF 12,600.
The Complete Calendar is the one collectors will argue for. At 11.6mm it carries the in-house calibre 2460 QCL/1 — 308 parts, stamped with the Hallmark of Geneva — displaying day, month, pointer date and a precision moon phase accurate enough to ignore for a generation. At CHF 29,500 it remains one of the better-value complete calendars from any of the great houses, and in steel with the sector dial it has the easy, unforced glamour the Fiftysix was always meant to have. Dress watches are having their moment again; Vacheron just reminded everyone it never stopped making them.
