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semperfi55

Review - Vacheron Constantin Patrimony Retrograde Day-Date

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semperfi55

If it's a dress watch, I'll buy it.

If it's a funky-looking piece, I'll buy it.

If it's a funky-looking dress watch, OHPF.

 

When I was younger, I was mesmerised by one of my mum's watches, a Gerald Genta Jumping Hours watch. The pic below gives an idea. Her watch is yellow gold and tastefully less bling. The watch mostly lived in the safe and only came out for special occasions.

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The unconventional time display really captured my attention, so much so that if a timepiece has two retrograde displays, I would be obsessing over it.

 

The Watch

The Vacheron Constantin Patrimony Retrograde Day-Date, reference 4000U/000R-B110, is that timepiece. True, it's not a jumping hours, and it's the day and date that do the retrograde, but you can clearly see some similarities in the aesthetic. And for someone superficial and shallow like myself, that does the job.

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RRP: GBP 38,600

 

Bear in mind there is also one with a moonphase instead of day function:

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The Rep

As usual, I was pleasantly surprised whilst scrolling through Tim (Watchfinder)'s gallery to find this rep.

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I went for the cream dial option, because my colour vision is fucked. White dial would probably be a better colour in hindsight...

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Still, it's a pretty timepiece :D 

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Dimensions

The gen has a 42.5mm diameter and 9.7mm case height. 

My rep measured out to be:

Case Diameter: 42.5mm

Case Height: 13mm

Lug to Lug: 48.5mm

Lug Width: Bizarre 21.7mm

So it doesn't perform well on the case height department, unfortunately...

 

Dial

The actual dial is pretty straightforward on this watch. No guilloche, no fancy-pants French terms to show off how much I know about horology. Or how little I know the French language...

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The gen does not have that accent on "E" in "GENEVE". So that's one tell there. The Brand font could be bolder, Malte cross is alright.

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I'd say stylistically the date font is pretty straightforward on the gen, so they had no problems replicating it here. It seems pretty decent to my untrained eye.  I compared the numbers "2", "3", "5", and "9". Looks identical to gen.

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It's worth noting that the arrow triangles on the retrograde hands are hollow as per gen. Pretty sweet!

Says "Swiss Made" at the bottom. Devil's in the details...

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The day font may be correct but it could definitely be bolder. Here's a little comparison with a catalogue pic in the backdrop.

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The day font is done pretty well too! The orientations are correct too with Wed and Thu being the dividing line for orientation. Surprisingly, the Tuesday and Saturday looks bolder than the rest as per gen! I have yet to figure out if that is by design or if it is an optical illusion causing Tue and Sat to look bolder. Am I going crazy?!

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All in all, a straightforward dial aesthetic executed reasonably well. Font design, as usual, is the weak link in reps.

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Movement

The gen houses a Calibre 2460 R31R7/2 automatic movement with a Hallmark of Geneva (for quality and detail) 28,800vph. The rep is a Seagull movement> I'm unsure which one but it is a lower breat 21,600vph movement. It's not a  deal-breaker as there is no second hand anyway to easily tell the difference.

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Some effort on detailing the rotor and the movement plates.

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Here's the gen to compare. No competition. Malte Cross should be between the Vacheron and Constantin, for one thing. But otherwise, the repmakers have done their best with the rotor design, of which I'm sure @Glaude has a name for.

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Case

Again, I go for a rose gold case at my own peril!!! The case is extremely reflective!!! Good Malte cross on the crown here.

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The lugs here are nothing special... as per the gen. As with the more modern VC designs, these lugs are simpler compared to their classier teardrop or cow horns lugs for other models.

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One recessed pusher 10 o'clock for the date function.

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Strap & Clasp

The leather strap is actually good quality! It smells nice too!! It has rich brown color which goes well with the rose gold case.

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The clasp on the hand looks slightly fantasy...

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Typical branding on leather. No accent here! They got it right on the strap but not on the dial :facepalm:

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I dunno what it says here. Can't be arsed to google translate. Ask @Glaude . Or @McGilli I dunno they have Quebec so everyone up there can speak some sort of French can't they.

All I can see is that the strap is saying the "Cous main" Couscous as the main dish? Either my French has improved or I'm just hungry. Maybe I should stop reviewing...

The clasp uses a strange mechanism. Instead of a straightforward pin to a hole, you need to put the "pin" through the hole and screw it onto the clasp. That's why it has a groove on it, in the pic below. Very finicky system which I dislike, I suspect this has more to do with the rep factory (KSF) that makes it, as I have a different rep that employs the same mechanism. 

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I feel the clasp is a bit fantasy, as the Malte cross on the clasp is usually smaller. This one seems a bit big and rough. :giggle:

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I don't know what is it called?  A halfway clasp? Or just bog-standard generic deployant? Definitely not a butterfly clasp.

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Still does the job.

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But as with all deployants, it certainly adds an extra bit of profile when you wear it,

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Function

The date function works beautifully. The quickset is operated via the recessed pusher at 10 o'clock. Unfortunately this is completely different from gen. The gen is a work of art!! Pull the crown to the first position, turn clockwise to adjust date, anti-clockwise to adjust day. Pull the crown further to the second position and you can set the time. Simples. Elegant. No faffing around with pens and the like.

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And here's the kicker:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The day is faux! Yup let that sink in.

From the perspective of this rep, we're stuck on Tuesday forever.

But perhaps that is for the best?

The repmakers are silent geniuses. Van Goghs. Unrecognised in their own times.

Tuesday is an interesting day in various cultures:

1) MURICA HAS ELECTIONS ON TUESDAYS!!!! SUPER TUESDAYS!!!!! FREEDOM!!!!! DEMOCRACY!!!!!!!!! BEST TRADE DEALS!!!!

2) In most languages with Latin origins, their word for Tuesday has some form of "Mars" in them,  because it's well, named after the chocolate bar, not the Greek Roman god.

3) In Japanese and Korean, the traditional word for Tuesday literally translates to "Fire Day", again as a reference to the planet Mars.

4) In Sanksrit, their Tuesday was known as "Angaraka", the one who is red in colour. They were not referring to Lenin. A reference to their god of war and Mars the planet. Seeing a trend?

5) The English and Germans derived it from a proto-Indo-European word that has a very long arsed explanation which would ruin the symmetry of the half-point/ long joke I'm trying to make so we'll leave it there k?

6) In the Greek world, Tuesday is considered an unlucky day. It might have something to do with the Ottomans kicking them out of Constantinople on a Tuesday...

7) For the Spanish speaking world, Tuesday is unlucky due to the association with Mars (War), so implies there will be death. Not wrong there...

8) So for Greeks and Spanish speakers, Tuesday the 13th is the one to avoid, rather than Friday the 13th.

9) This is all Wikipedia knowledge, so up to our diverse community here on RWG to verify!

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So the faux day display would be a deal-breaker to many! Always check with your TD to find out if all functions are accounted for!

 

Accuracy

There's no second hand mate, it's gonna be hard to tell. No time for timegraphers and shit. :lol:

 

Overall

It's a matter of priorities. What's more important to you. Aesthetic? Functionality? Detail accuracy? If we look at these three aspects, aesthetic is probably the aspect which scored highest.  The case is way thicker than gen, day is faux, and it requires a recessed pusher instead of the genius crown design (though that is more forgivable).  This piece is not for everyone. It's more of a compromise piece for someone who is a fan of the aesthetic and is willing to ignore the incomplete functionality and thicker case (by 3mm). Of course, anyone who is familiar with the gen (very few) can instantly tell it's a rep. 

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Nonetheless, it's a classy-looking piece, something different :) 

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And it can join my steadily-growing VC collection...

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Amongst other rose gold reps :Whistle:

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Mandatory wrist shot finale!

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Glaude
40 minutes ago, semperfi55 said:

All I can see is that the strap is saying the "Cous main" Couscous as the main dish? Either my French has improved or I'm just hungry. Maybe I should stop reviewing...

Cousu main = hand stitched in opposition to machine stitched, but I imagine that this is not the case !

40 minutes ago, semperfi55 said:

The day is faux! Yup let that sink in.

From the perspective of this rep, we're stuck on Tuesday forever.

But perhaps that is for the best?

The repmakers are silent geniuses. Van Goghs. Unrecognised in their own times.

Don't make up excuses, just tell everybody the truth : you only realised that after receiving QC because you didn't do your homework correctly :p 

Another great review ! I prefer this watch in the moonphase version though !

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McGilli

So, first of all - they spelled THURSDAY wrong on the dial.... Wow... Lazy..

COUS MAIN means "Priority Elbow" in Quebec French. Which is kind of a slang for "Put it on your favourite arm". It's a very common saying in Eastern Canada. A lot of people wrongly associate Canadians with "eh" - but it's actually Cous Main - which is phonetically pronounced Cuew May. French is BS. So glad in Scotland we never had to learn it.

And... you're killing me.... all these watches with no lume... Like - I get these types of watches exist - but - do people who wear these watches take their watches off at night? Much like a lady takes off her diamond earrings before bed?

The day doesn't work.... damn.... cuz I was really appreciative of the watch up until then. Still, with the rest of the collection it looks great.

But that other one you recently got - with the tilted dial is still my fave put of those in the photos....

PISS - How many watches are you going to buy? You need to warn us - cuz when your reviews stop I'll probably go into withdrawal....

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semperfi55
24 minutes ago, Glaude said:

Don't make up excuses, just tell everybody the truth : you only realised that after receiving QC because you didn't do your homework correctly :p 

Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

 

25 minutes ago, Glaude said:

I prefer this watch in the moonphase version though !

Mr Timezone did market it on their website. Previously I did ask them about it but they said they couldn't find it...

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semperfi55
20 minutes ago, McGilli said:

COUS MAIN means "Priority Elbow" in Quebec French. Which is kind of a slang for "Put it on your favourite arm". It's a very common saying in Eastern Canada. A lot of people wrongly associate Canadians with "eh" - but it's actually Cous Main - which is phonetically pronounced Cuew May. French is BS. So glad in Scotland we never had to learn it.

:rofl: It's so funny I wish it was true. Of course it is! :rofl:

23 minutes ago, McGilli said:

but - do people who wear these watches take their watches off at night?

No....the Datejust doesn't have lume, Patrick still wore it to bed!

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To be fair, if the DJ had lume, Christie might not have touched the watch.....

26 minutes ago, McGilli said:

The day doesn't work.... damn....

It is a shame indeed!

27 minutes ago, McGilli said:

PISS - How many watches are you going to buy? You need to warn us - cuz when your reviews stop I'll probably go into withdrawal....

:lol: It's gonna happen soon, rapid deceleration incoming because of rapid deceleration of income ;) 

There's gonna be a change in direction of my collection/reviews soon... :B):

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