For a while now, it has seemed like I was the last person in New York who hadn’t gone to Iceland. Part of me resisted any urge because, well, why do what everyone else has done Vacheron Constantin Overseas ? I’d rather go to Norway, where my family is from, or Patagonia, with the dramatic mountain landscapes. But part of not visiting Iceland was kind of like resisting watching everyone’s favorite TV show. Iceland has been so hyped up that it couldn’t meet expectations, could it?
We run into this a lot with watches. The hype train barrels through town and everyone who can gets on board. Everyone else has to suffer with feeling left out. Sometimes it’s financial reasons – not everyone can afford the hot watch at the moment – and sometimes, it’s just because you were too late. Regardless, there’s this tendency to go through something like the stages of grief of watch collecting – denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. But an inability to take the long view is one of our own greatest enemies when it comes to watch collecting. As hype fades (and prices inevitably die down and watches start becoming more available from retailers, which, trust me, they will), we’re left with the things that made things great in the first place.
Basically, every blue dial Vacheron Constantin Overseas has been at least a little hard to get for a while now. Like with the icons from Patek and AP, the Overseas has suffered from its own success as a luxury integrated bracelet steel sportswatch with it’s own little tweaks to make it stand out. Vacheron’s press team assures me that they don’t “bundle” watches and that spending more money won’t get you a blue Overseas any faster. But it’s certainly one of those watches that you could grapple with convincing yourself is overhyped if you can’t get one.
But curiously, it’s one of the lines of luxury sports watches that also feels like it actually “does the thing,” for lack of a better phrase. The main line Royal Oak isn’t a watch I’d want to wear climbing a mountain just because of how poorly the dings and scratches would wear on the case. The Nautilus is beautiful and elegant, far too much so actually to be intensely sporty. The time-only version of the Overseas is a hefty proposition at $25,000, but at least it comes with 150m of water resistance (more than both competitors). The package is comfortable, thin, and wearable, with a comfortable bracelet that can be quickly changed to a leather or rubber strap. And the sunburst blue dial is still fantastic – that’s why people wanted one in the first place, after all.
So there I was, in Iceland, with the new Vacheron Constantin Overseas Moon Phase Retrograde Date on my wrist. With only 50 meters of water resistance, it’s not the most rugged watch of the Overseas line. In fact, back in March, I called it Vacheron’s “signature complication,” and certainly not one particularly useful for sporty endeavors. It’s also significantly more expensive – $43,800. But for what I was trying to do, that was perfect. More than anything, my general question was to figure out how far toward “luxury” a “sports watch” can go before the two ideas clash.
This Vacheron Constantin Overseas won’t be the most traditional hands-on. In fact, if you want to know more about the specifications (other than the 41mm by 10.48mm stainless steel case, 40-hour power reserve, or the fact that the moonphase is accurate to 122 years), hop over to our introduction story. Instead, think of this as a visual palette cleanser as I (gently) attempt to answer the question of how luxury a sports watch can get. But first, let me set the stage for why I was in Iceland.
Last week Vacheron announced a new friend of the brand, the artist Zaria Forman. Most of the time, the folks associated with brands are famous celebrities, and their availability to be at events is limited to a few hours a couple of times a year. But Forman was set to be in Iceland, away from her daughter and husband, for a week to better help us understand the climate-conscious artwork she makes that brought her to the attention of Vacheron. Her large-scale pastel landscapes and blown-up detailed art of melting ice aren’t “photo-realistic” – they’re REAL realistic, making you feel like you’re watching climate change happen. But to bring them even more to life, we set out on a journey across Iceland to see the landscape she found inspiration from for her most recent body of work. We started in Reykjavík at Harpa, a conference and event space near the water, to see Zaria’s work and prepare for the journey ahead.
