Vacheron Constantin | La Quête du Temps Astronomical Clock
In 2025, Vacheron Constantin celebrates its 270th anniversary with an extraordinary creation: La Quête du Temps. More than a clock, it is a monumental astronomical work of art that fuses horological excellence, mechanical artistry and craftsmanship of an automaton.
Presented as the centrepiece of the Mécaniques d’Art exhibition at the Musée du Louvre in Paris, from 17 September to 12 November 2025, La Quête du Temps redefines what it means to measure time.
For more than two and a half centuries, Vacheron Constantin has been demonstrating the excellence of watchmaking.
Founded in 1755 in Geneva, it is the world’s oldest continuously operating watch manufacture, renowned for creations that combine mechanical ingenuity with artistic refinement. In 2025, as the Maison marks its 270th anniversary, it unveils what may be its most audacious creation to date: La Quête du Temps — The Quest of Time.
Seven years of development
La Quête du Temps was conceived over seven years of development, bringing together the finest watchmakers, automaton specialists, decorative artists, and astronomers. It unites disciplines across science and art, embodying the Maison’s enduring pursuit of beauty translated into mechanics.
Within its towering structure, over a metre in height, lies a movement of staggering complexity:
23 watchmaking complications, ranging from tourbillon to astronomical indications.
15 patent applications filed, underscoring its technical innovations.
More than 6,000 mechanical components intricately choreographed.
An automaton Astronomer capable of 144 distinct gestures, guided by 158 cams.
Above, a celestial dome recreates the sky over Geneva on 17 September 1755, the date of the Maison’s founding. Enamel constellations, painted glass, and gilded figures merge astronomical precision with aesthetic poetry.
Quest of Time
To accompany this singular clock, Vacheron Constantin has also unveiled the Métiers d’Art – Tribute to the Quest of Time, a limited series of just 20 wristwatches.
These distill the clock’s artistic spirit into wearable form, with retrograde time displays animated by a figure whose arms serve as living hands of time, moon phase indications, and celestial details inspired by the great astronomical clock. Each is a microcosm of the monumental work.
With La Quête du Temps, Vacheron Constantin marks the anniversary by creating a new benchmark in mechanical and aesthetic artistry, proving that timekeeping at its highest level is about precision, wonder, imagination, and legacy.
This masterpiece is not destined for private ownership. Instead, it belongs to history itself: a symbol of the Maison’s enduring quest, unveiled in one of the world’s most revered museums.
Exhibition
Exhibited within the Louvre, La Quête du Temps finds itself in dialogue with historic masterpieces of horology and automata — from Renaissance clocks to 18th-century astronomical marvels. It is a deliberate gesture, aligning Vacheron Constantin’s 21st-century creation with centuries of human effort to study and represent the cosmos through mechanics.
Location: Musée du Louvre, Paris
Dates: 17 September – 12 November 2025
Exhibition: Mécaniques d’Art
Photography courtesy of Vacheron Constantin.
Gem Exploring Editorial.
