An evening with Vacheron Constantin
Vacheron Constantin treated a select group of Doctors Club members to an evening of horological discovery combined with fragrance specialist Fiole at their Old Bond Street store in London.
We’ve been lucky enough to do an event with Vacheron Constantin and their partners before and they always do something different and interesting.
Fiole are the world’s first virtual perfumery and offer a collection of fragrances by independent, often family-run and always exquisitely crafted fragrance houses.
Samuel Gearing, who is the founder of Fiole gave us a fascinating history lesson on the world of fragrance which was followed by a blind sniffing (I’m sure there is a technical term for this) of bespoke fragrances from their partner houses. There is a lot to learn about the alchemy of odours.
Vacheron Constantin is the oldest watchmaker in the world and have been making watches since 1755, that’s over a quarter of a millennium. That means they were making precision instruments 61 years before the stethoscope was invented, 98 years before the syringe, 21 years before America existed and 14 years before the birth of Napoleon Bonaparte! With such a long history to draw on it’s fascinating to learn about the oldest and one of the most exclusive watchmakers in the world.
We also got to spend some time with Selynn Blanchet, who is the master watchmaker for Vacheron Constantin UK. Watching her dismantling the most complex of minute mechanisms whilst answering a barrage of questions from us was an impressive display of skill and concentration. She had such passion for her trade, it was a genuine privilege to watch a skilled craftsperson at work.
We all got a chance to try assembling or disassembling (a small part of) a mechanism. The surgeons among us were pretty keen to show off their steady hands and precision skills… none were bad as such and I’d certainly let them near me with a knife or a hammer, but I think I’ll leave the watches in the capable hands of Selynn.
Thanks again to the whole team at Vacheron Constantin and Samuel from Fiole for a very enjoyable evening.
Learn more about: Vacheron Constantin (https://thedoctorsclub.co.uk/partner-vacheron-constantin/)
Learn more about Fiole (https://fiole.co.uk/pages/the-fiole-story)
