Vacheron Constantin ref.4591 – A Stylish Beauty From The 1950s

A few weeks ago, when I was visiting my friend Gerard over at Horloge Platform Nederland, he showed me this incredible beauty of the 1950s, a Vacheron Constantin ref.4591. It reminded me of scenes from The Godfather when the Corleones hang around with Moe Greene in a Las Vegas casino. Somehow, 1950 watches do that to me, I might be the only one though.

So, what it so special about this watch? The main thing is the shape of the crystal, which is quite difficult to photograph I assume. But as you can see on the picture above, there is a small ‘folding’ line from 3 o’clock to 9 o’clock. Although it is a relatively small watch (25mm wide, 8.5mm thick and a length of 38.5mm, including the lugs), it will not look bad on most men’s wrists at all since watches of that era were always small. Collectors of these type of watches probably don’t care whether it will look good on their wrist or not. The crown of this watch is unsigned, but nevertheless original. Having your brand’s logos everywhere on the watch was uncalled for in those days.

There have only been a few of these watches for sale on auction sites such as Antiquorum, and the last one was in 2005. The last ref.4591 Antiquorum auctioned in 2005, has been up for sale on James List recently (click here) but it doesn’t seem to have this particular shaped crystal.

The hand wound Vacheron Constantin movement caliber 435/3C is tonneau shaped and fits perfectly in the 18 carat gold case.

Horloge Platform Nederland is asking 5950 EU for this classic dress watch.