Vacheron & Constantin ship’s helm navy chronometer deck clock Ref#3740 I am pleased to offer from my private collection this MUSEUM antique Vacheron & Constantin SHIP'S HELM Navy CHRONOMETER DECK CLOCK set within the beveled walnut stand from 1938! Only 300 pieces have been made! MEGA RARE! The only one for sale anywhere, not sure if V&C Museum in Geneva has one on display! Case: in brass, circular, shaped as ship’s helm with four handles, top handle used to wind and set. 70 mm diameter.(105 mm including handles). Completed in 1938. Movement: Calibre RA 22’’’73 2PRC, 20 jewels, gilt brass, straight-line lever escapement, blued Breguet hairspring, cut bimetallic balance with gold timing screws, precision regulator, Wolf teeth winding gear, gold train. Dial: Two-tone gilt with Arabic numerals, outer minute track and subsidiary seconds. Blued steel tapered baton hands. Signed on dial and movement. VACHERON & CONSTANTIN CHRONOMETRE ROYAL SHIPS CLOCK Vacheron & Constantin, Chronomètre Royal, Genève. Made circa 1938. A very rare and unusual helm-shaped, brass desk clock on a wooden mount. Circular brass shaped as a helm, the top handle used as the winder, held in the wooden base by 2 screws. Gold with painted Arabic numerals, outer minute track, subsidiary seconds, blue epée hands. Cal. 22’'’, frosted gilt, wolf-tooth winding, bimetallic compensation balance, swan neck micro-metric regulator. Dial and movement signed, case numbered. This desk watch has been called a "helm" and "ship's wheel" style, so I guess there was a maritime theme in the design. But as I understand, it was actually intended to be a store reference watch, like the Heure Exacte. I can imagine the days before electronic clocks, cell phones and internet when people would routinely adjust their own watch while passing by a watch boutique. This Ref. 3740 Chronometre Royal bronze desk watch is from 1938 and it's sibling to the 3741 World Time version that was presented in the VC collection during SIHH 2011 The Annales of Vacheron & Constantin reveals an interesting sidebar to this timepiece. I'll leave Charles Constantin to reveal the story from his journal entry from 1937: "One idea would lead to the next, and in order to look for a method of using the 300 movements of 22-lignes that had been prepared for Brazil and had not been sold since 1914, I came up with the idea of creating some office clocks with four knobs, on a wooden base, reminding one of the navy chronometers. The wholesale price was fixed at 150 Francs - and they were sold quickly."