The new Vacheron Constantin Overseas World Time 7700V comes with the Geneva Hallmark quality seal, and is available in three different colours.

I guess we could say that 2016 is a proper Overseas year for Vacheron Constantin. After a few modest years, in terms of novelties, the brand already made a strong impression with last year’s Harmony collection that comprised a host of new movements. By the end of last year the Genevan brand impressed friend and foe by presenting the most complicated watch in the world. And a few months later, in January of this year Vacheron Constantin introduced a complete new Overseas collection, and again with new in-house developed and manufactured movements. They are on a roll! However Vacheron meant to add some more horological goodness to the already lovely Overseas family, by adding their well-known worldtimer complication. This is by the way, the only (mechanical) worldtimer that indicates the time in 37 time zones around our blue planet.  The dial feature a rotatable worldmap in thhe centre of the dial and that makes it easier and faster to see the time in a specific place on earth, at a glance. The new Overseas World Time also features this worldmap on the dial, with nice juxtaposition between the sunburst satin-brushed finished continents and the oceans feature a velvet finish.

Around the worldmap – this way to depict the continents and oceans is called a Lambert projection map – is a translucent lacquered disc bearing the city names. Placed over that city-name ring and the worldmap, is a sapphire disk that provides day/night indications by means of subtly graded smoky tints, which is connected to the 24-hour disc. On the perimeter is a translucent lacquered velvet-finished outer ring that serves to indicate the hours and minutes in each time zone.

The central hour, minute and second hand are in 18K gold, an dthese are highlighted with white luminescent material for better legibility in dim light conditions. All functions can be set via the crown.As you have seen in the photos and from the description, there are three interpretations: a blue, a silver-toned and a brown dial. From these images I find it difficult to judge how it looks ‘in the metal’, and it’s even more difficult to pick a favourite, however we’ll keep you posted once we have the change to go hands-on with the new Overseas World Time.

The Case – The stainless steel case measures 43.5 mm in diameter, and is 12.6 mm thick, which immediately makes it the biggest timepiece in the new Overseas collection – the new Overseas Chronograph 5500V is a millimetre smaller in diameter, however it’s a millimetre thicker. Like its Overseas siblings it features a soft iron casing ring to ensure anti-magnetic protection, and the crown is a screwed-down crown. With a water resistance to depths of a 150 metres it is a very practical luxury sports/casual watch, that also looks great to go with a suit and tie. In fact, with its world time complication, it is intended as a traveler’s watch, and I can perfectly imagine that it fulfils all the timing needs of a traveler.The Movement show the easy-fit system to exchange bracelets, and you can also see the movement with a thin soft-iron ring surrounding it. The movement at hand is the Vacheron Constantin calibre 2460 WT – WT stands for World Time – and it’s the almost the same movement as used in the previously discussed Vacheron Constantin Traditionnelle World Time. I say almost, because the only real difference between the one in the Traditionnelle WT and this Overseas WT is the rotor: here it features the exact same wind rose rotor, crafted from 22k gold, that is also used for all other new Overseas models.

It is probably the most useful complication one could imagine. Sure, an ultra thin luxury sports watch with a perpetual calendar looks absolutely great and a chronograph adds some extra ‘sportiness’, however in the end a functional and useful worldtimer is a complication that will actually be used frequently by those who travel the world, and/or do business around the world.

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