To watch collectors and enthusiasts, the 222 has a mystique few watches can match
By then, the watch industry had moved into a new era; the era of the independent watch designer. Already, the Swiss artist and designer Gérald Genta had established himself as the watch-brand design go-to, creating Audemars Piguet’s Royal Oak, Patek Philippe’s Nautilus and IWC’s Ingenieur SL — the latter pairing both from 1976.
With each passing year, this looked more and more odd. The 222 was cool, and seemed a storytelling and commercial open goal. Even Tissot had brought back its 1978 PRX, which could scarcely look more like the 222 if it tried. And that had been a critical and commercial hit. Plus, Vacheron had the perfect vehicle for it, having previously used its Historiques collection to recast vaunted watches such as the American 1921 and the Cornes de Vache 1955.
When the dust settled on Watches and Wonders two weeks later, mine became one in a chorus of voices declaring the same thing: the Vacheron Constantin Historiques 222 was the standout watch of the show.Speaking in the present, Vacheron Constantin’s heritage director Christian Selmoni won’t be drawn on the whys and wherefores. “2022 was the right moment,” he offers, noting the near alignment of the year and the reference.
The Genta myth was finally debunked in 2014, but not, strictly, by Vacheron. “I spoke to one of the team members at Vacheron who was there in the 1970s when the 222 came out, and he confirmed it was [designed by] Hysek and not Genta,” says Alexandre Ghotbi, who at the time was running The Hour Lounge, a Vacheron forum that had only recently been taken under the brand’s ownership.
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