The President's Time

If there is a watch brand automatically associated with one specific complication, that brand has to be Vulcain. It features a mechanical alarm boasting the colorful name ‘Cricket' in every single one of the timepieces in its collection.

Founded in 1858 by an Alsatian family and showing early on a strong inclination toward the American market (and winning a prize for complicated watches at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair), Vulcain chose New York's Waldorf Astoria to launch the Cricket as the first alarm wristwatch in 1947. Since then, the Cricket function and the American connection have had a major influence on the brand's history and the new releases unveiled at this year's Baselworld share precisely that heritage – using coherence and legitimacy, Vulcain is on the right path to strengthen its position in the watch industry.

Resurrected in 2001 by Bernard Fleury, Vulcain built a collection around the Cricket manufacture alarm caliber and recently decided to capitalize on an important stage of its history, which took place from the late 1940s to the early '70s: U.S. presidents Truman, Eisenhower, Johnson and Nixon became customers of the brand and President Johnson even bought more than 200 pieces for his personal collection, also gifting Vulcain watches to important visitors to the White House with his initials on the dials.

It was only logical that Fleury, a respected veteran in the watch industry, would come up with the 50s Presidents' Watch Collection, which proved to be a hit in 2010 with its classic and clean looks from the 1950s and early 1960s. After the automatic 50s Presidents' Watch issued last year, the presidential collection is enriched this year with a hand-wound version with a beautiful guilloché dial center (also available with a 42 mm diameter case), a Heritage Presidents' Watch identical to the original Vulcain timepiece incorporating the Cricket alarm movement in 1947 (39 mm case), and feminine versions in 39 mm demonstrating that mechanical watches and complications can also be interpreted to fit women's tastes and personalities.


Anniversary editions

Vulcain's new releases at Baselworld also includes two anniversary models. The first one is the impressive Nautical Heritage Limited Edition commemorating the 50th anniversary of a celebrated diver's alarm watch with an unmistakable slide rule dial. The Nautical line was re-edited in 2002, water-resistant to 300 meters and audible under water, but the new Nautical Heritage timepiece is even more faithful to the 1961 original: it boasts the water-protected calfskin strap used back then and features a thick elevated Plexiglas crystal along with the V10 caliber that also powers all 39 mm versions of the 50s Presidents Watch line.

The second one is the Anniversary Heart Calendar Automatic, housed in a modern 42 mm case with a see-through dial and powered by automatic manufacture Caliber V22.

New fire… better ‘eruptions'

Vulcain was named after the god of fire in Roman mythology – and its recent integration into Excellence Holding (a group that owns luxury retail chain Les Ambassadeurs and niche brand Jaermann & Stübi) promises to fire up the business: more money available for communication will expand the specialty brand that is approaching 200 points of sale around the world. This brand also boasts every asset to please an ever-growing Chinese hunger for mechanical timepieces: history, classic looks (Presidents' line), alarm function, accessible price range, and even smaller variatgions. At the moment it is Switzerland, France, Singapore, Hong Kong and Mexico that are the brand's strongest markets.

All movements (the hand-wound V-10, the automatic V-21 and respective variations) are made in-house in Le Locle and the price/quality ratio is highly interesting for a manufacture, with prices ranging mainly from 3,500 to 9,000 Swiss francs. Bernard Fleury, initiator of the Vulcain renaissance a decade ago, was not a large shareholder in the brand but still remains firmly at the helm with his typical discretion. It is he who provides the consistency that has been boosting Vulcain's strong identity for ten years.