The 1950's Vacheron Constantin Ref. 6290

The race to create the thinnest mechanical watch has been a coveted award to many watch companies. The likes of Patek Philippe, Audemars Piguet, Jeager LeCoultre, and Piaget have all gone head to head over the last century to bring this title to their watch house. Not only has this competition been good for the innovation side of watchmaking, it definitely has created some beautiful watches along the way.

Vacheron Constantin also competed with the aforementioned brands to shrink the thickness of their watches. One of their movements, the Caliber 1003, is a wonderful example of their attempt at making the thinnest movement. The original movement was created the Jaeger LeCoultre as the caliber 803 and sold to Vacheron Constantin and Audemars Piguet. Vacheron Constantin was first to introduce their modified movement and took the world by storm. Development on the caliber 1003 began in 1952 and three years later, it was presented in 1955 for the brands bicentenary celebration.

The movement is 9-lignes (21.05mm diameter) and only 1.64mm thick (or thin)! While the watch we are looking at today is not one of the three round watches the movement was housed in to take home record as the worlds thinnest watch (at 4.54mm thick!), it still exquisitely represent the innovation and quality the brand was able to bring to life with this reference.

The watch is the reference 6290 and is really the other end of the spectrum compared to the world record holding round watches Vacheron Constantin produced with the caliber 1003. The 6290 is a square, 26x26mm watch. The example we have today is cased in 18k white gold, but there are yellow gold versions of the 6290 known to have been produced. There are rumours of a platinum 6290 being produced, but have not been confirmed. The case is very interesting to those who like different case finishings. The top of the watch has a polished finish while the sides of the case is brushed. One can even still see the hallmark at the bottom right side of the case, making it possible that this watch has not been polished.

The dial is slate grey, which is a nice combination with the white gold case. The dial has applied hour markers and a minutes and hours hands, which is what the caliber 1003 equipped it’s watches with. Now 26mm is small, even for those who enjoy wearing watches of this size. One has to look past that though to really get the most enjoyment out of this watch. Strapping this watch to the wrist and wearing it demonstrates the exceptional quality Vacheron Constantin produced with this watch. The watch is light and very comfortable - almost to the point that one can forget they have the watch on their wrist.

But when you need to look down at the time, or simply want to gaze at something beautiful, the 6290 takes the cake. The watch is simple, and really all that one needs. Because it was done at a high standard, it really makes you enjoy wearing it.

The watch is available on our store here.

Enjoy!