Vacheron & Constantin's first automatic wrist watch was introduced in 1951, the 12-ligne bumper-winding caliber 477 with central seconds. Like all of their calibers since 1938, it was based upon a rough-finished ebauche from their movement supplier Jaeger LeCoultre.
I have collected a small collection of vintage Vacheron Constantin watches covering ref 4465 (Caliber P454 hand wind) ref 6692 (Caliber 477) and ref 6694 (Caliber 1072).
First generation automatic bumper movement Caliber 477
Cal. 477 .Their first rotor-winding calibers appeared in 1954. Based on movements developed exclusively for V&C, caliber 498 featured subsidiary seconds at 6 o’clock while caliber 499 had central seconds. They were 0.75mm thinner than the 477 bumpers, with rotors running on four hidden steel bearings located close to the center pivot.
2nd Generation automatic Caliber 4.98/ ＇4..99
Cal. 498/499. Further evolution of the 498/499 led to V&C’s first bidirectional-winding automatic in 1956, the caliber 1019 with central seconds; replacing the 498/499 after only two years in production.
3rd Generation Caliber 1019
Caliber 1019. The 1019 was followed by a new design in 1959, the familiar caliber 107X family.
4th Generation Caliber 1070/71/72
Calibers 1070 and 1071, like the 498/499, featured sub-seconds and central seconds respectively. Their distinctive guilloche gold-segment rotors displayed four ruby rollers. While the diameter remained the same as the 498/499, the overall height increased by 0.10mm. There are some confusion with regards to cal 1071 vs 1072 as previously many thought that the difference between calibers 1071 and 1072 is the fact that the latter has a date function.
However, the caliber 1071 was made for only 5 years (1958-1963) and subsequently derived into caliber 1072 and models with caliber 1072 without date are using cal 1071 renamed cal 1072.
However models with caliber 1071 were produced from 1958 til circa 1972, which means that basically during that time (1958-1972) VC had non date models using both calibers 1071 and 1072.
Informations from the forum :
https://forums.timezone.com/index.php?t=msg&th=985812&rid=0
Prior to the.automatic, we have the P454 hand wind movement as below
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