By William Stolerman

Vacheron Constantin is really the unsung hero among high end dress watches.

But imagine if a watch company celebrated its 200th anniversary in the coming year. That would be a pretty old company and it still wouldn’t hold a candle to the house founded by Jean-Marc Vacheron. The brand celebrated their bicentennial in 1955 by introducing the thinnest watch available at the time, the Patrimony.

Therefore fans of understated dress watches might be glad to know that Vacheron Constantin are releasing two watches to commemorate the company’s past.

The first, the Historique 1955, is a 36mm hand-wound affair that is only 4.1mm thick – making it the thinnest mechanical watch available at the time. The original movement, the caliber 1003, is only 1.64mm.

Its cousin, the Historique 1968, is slightly heftier at 5.5mm thick. It is also an automatic, which is probably the reason for the added weight. The caliber 1120 movement, like its manual cousin, is made largely out of 18K for good measure, like the movements of fine pocket watches. Expect a late Christmas unveiling at the Geneva watch fair.