Overseas High Jewellery

Vacheron Constantin Overseas Self-Winding High Jewellery in 35 mm, white and pink gold

The Overseas has always been understood as a watch for people who move easily between cities, climates, and expectations. Its proportions, its restraint, its confidence on the wrist have long signalled familiarity with serious watchmaking rather than overt display. With the fully gem-set Overseas Self-Winding High Jewellery, that language remains intact, but the expression shifts. This is not a decorative variation. It is a considered expansion of the collection’s scope, executed without altering its posture.

At 35 mm, the case sits with composure. The size was introduced to suit a broader range of wrists without compromise, and here it becomes a foundation for a level of craft usually reserved for formal jewellery watches. Both versions, in 18K white gold and 18K 5N pink gold, are fully set with diamonds across the case, bezel, dial, bracelet, and buckle, yet the watch never reads as fragile or ornamental. The Overseas architecture remains intact, including its distinctive bezel geometry and integrated bracelet.

The gem-setting is where the watch asserts its authority. A total of 1,430 diamonds, combining brilliant and baguette cuts, are applied using multiple techniques, each chosen for a specific surface. The bezel features invisibly set baguette-cut diamonds arranged to echo the Maltese cross motif. This method requires the stones to be grooved with microscopic precision so that no metal is visible, allowing the surface to appear uninterrupted. It is a demanding approach, and its presence here is deliberate rather than demonstrative.

The dial is snow-set with hundreds of brilliant-cut diamonds of varying sizes, positioned to create a uniform density without a discernible pattern. Twelve baguette-cut diamonds mark the hours, maintaining legibility without introducing contrast. The effect is controlled and uniform, with light reflecting across the surface rather than flashing from individual stones. On the wrist, it reads as texture before sparkle.

The bracelet continues this logic. Each link is snow-set individually before assembly, a process that prioritises continuity over speed. Despite the density of diamonds, the bracelet retains the Overseas easy-fit system and tool-free interchangeability, allowing it to be worn on its full gold bracelet or exchanged for alligator leather or rubber straps. The straps introduce colour quietly, blue for white gold, fuchsia for pink gold, and shift the watch’s presence without changing its identity.

Mechanically, the watch is powered by an in-house self-winding caliber finished with Geneva stripes and beveled bridges, visible through a sapphire case back. A solid gold rotor engraved with a compass rose signals its lineage. The movement offers hours, minutes, central seconds with stop-seconds, and a date, with a power reserve suitable for daily wear. Nothing here distracts from the watch’s purpose as an everyday object, even in this elevated form.

What distinguishes this Overseas is not the quantity of diamonds, but the decision to apply high jewellery standards to a watch designed for movement and versatility. It is worn with the same ease as a steel Overseas, but signals a different register of access.

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