- Vacheron Constantin marks 270th anniversary with an astronomical clock, La Quête du Temps, now presented at the Louvre
- With 23 complications, La Quête du Temps took seven years to develop and comprises 6293 mechanical components
- The astronomical clock inspired an accompanying automation timepiece, the Métiers d’Art Tribute to The Quest of Time, with 20 examples produced
Vacheron Constantin knows how to mark an event, with the Swiss manufacture spending the entire year paying tribute to the 270th anniversary of its founding. However, for its birthday—Jean-Marc Vacheron founded the company on the 17th of September, 1755—the manufacture unveiled what just might be the best birthday present yet.
While all the horological creations within Vacheron Constantin’s anniversary oeuvre have been impressive, the La Quête du Temps is truly something special. A haute horology masterpiece, it’s an astronomical clock that combines astronomical functions with an automation complication, going beyond mere timekeeping to create a whimsical kinetic work of art.
The Vacheron Constantin La Quête du Temps employs a three-part architecture, comprising a dome, the astronomical clock itself, and base. The result of seven years of work, La Quête du Temps saw Vacheron Constantin’s watchmaking teams collaborate with François Junod—widely recognised as the world’s greatest automater—of L’Épée 1839, and astronomers from the Geneva Observatory, as well as master artisans to execute the decorative elements. The resultant horological marvel comprises 6293 mechanical components with 2370 of those within the clock’s movement and 3923 for the automation. The astronomical clock is powered by the new calibre 9270, which boasts 23 horological complications.
While its mechanics are serious, the inspiration behind La Quête du Temps is rather whimsical. The timepiece speaks to mankind’s eternal fascination with the moon, sun, and stars, and their movements across the celestial vault, with these rhythms and phases coming to define time cycles (i.e through sunrise and sunset) and eventually track these cycles using clocks. This cosmic observation and reverence for astrological phenomena has been at the heart of the maison’s approach since its inception.
“From the earliest automatons recorded during Ancient Greek and Persian empires until now, there is no evidence of any being integrated into a clock as part of the timekeeping function; rather, all were standalone devices or supplementary animations,” explained Christian Selmoni, director of heritage and style at Vacheron Constantin, of the inspiration behind La Quête du Temps. “The Maison’s teams looked at how they could revisit the two worlds—of automata and of clock-making—and dreamed of an automaton that would indicate the hours and minutes.”
The ‘Astronomer’ automation at the heart of La Quête du Temps serves as a metaphor for the spirit of the maison, with the bronze figure standing at the heart of the upper dome. When activated, it performs one of three choreographed sequences, accompanied by melodies composed by musician Woodkid, with the sound produced by a mechanical ‘music machine’ composed of a metallophone and Wah-Wah tubes, invented by François Junod and integrated into the mechanism for the automaton. The sequence ends with the Astronomer figure indicating the current time by pinging to hour and minute scales suspended within the dome. The automation can be activated on demand or pre-programmed to run at a certain time.
Despite its complicated appearance, the middle clock section is designed to be read in a relatively linear format. The three-dimensional layout allows for both a front and back dial. The front dial is crafted from four layers of mirrored rock crystal and designed as a series of arcs, curves, and circles. There’s an oversized tourbillon at 12 o’clock, housed within Vacheron Constantin’s signature Maltese Cross-shaped cage and surrounded by a circle of baguette-cut diamonds. The clock houses retrograde hours and minutes on the periphery, with a leap-year indicator to the right of the tourbillon aperture and calendar days and months are displayed in apertures at 10 o’clock and 2 o’clock respectively. Curved scales act as parentheses for the clock, housing 24-hour scale with sunrise and sunset times indicated by a retrograde hand.
Around the back, the second dial depicts a Northern Hemisphere celestial vault that tracks the movement of the constellations in real time, and measures the sidereal day which is approximately four minutes shorter than the 24-hour calendar day that defines civic time.
The base of the clock plays host to a two-level plinth depicts the solar system against a background of lapis lazuli.
La Quête du Temps is the pièce de résistance within the Mecaniques d’Art exhibition at the Louvre in Paris, France. The exhibition also features objects such as the Pendulum Clock of the Creation of the World, from the Enlightenment era in Paris. Crafted by Claude Siméon Passemant and the Lepaute brothers from wood, iron, glass, gilt copper, and bronze, it was presented to Louis XV in 1754 and conserved with Vacheron Constantin’s support. There’s also a 10th-crntury automation clock in the form of a peacock, thought to be produced in Spain; a spherical watch signed by 16th-century French horologist Jacques de la Garde which dates back to 1551 and is the oldest clock dated and signed in France; a carriage clock engraved with the arms of Cardinal Richelieu, made in France by François de Hecq, circa 1640; and a Ptolemaic water clock from Egypt, which dates back to the 3rd century BC.
The Mécaniques d’Art exhibition at the Louvre, Paris will run from the 17th of September to the 12th of November 2025.
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Words by T. Angel
