Watches & Wonders 2015, Vacheron Constantin released this new limited edition blue version of the Overseas – a high-end sports watch collection that I love to cover from time to time. Earlier in 2015, I spent some time revisiting the Vacheron Constantin Overseas Chronograph collection (also in blue) here. The dial is bold and provides no-nonsense or anything too extra, and comfort is very high given the decent proportions and comfortable straps or bracelets.

What I’ve always appreciated about the Overseas collection is the pleasant mixture between stately legibility and just a little bit of showiness. Those allow for a view of the movement in their otherwise magnetically immune watches, while something like the Vacheron Constantin Overseas has a solid caseback. The Vacheron Constantin Overseas bezel is one large play on the cross-style Vacheron Constantin brand logo. It offers a distinct look that has a deeper meaning to the brand – which is something that has few analogs in other designs out there. It also happens to be water-resistant to 150 meters and, of course, has an AR-coated sapphire crystal.
Both the three-hand and chronograph versions of the Vacheron Constantin Overseas come in a 42mm-wide case – here in steel with immaculate finishing and extremely tasteful contrasting brushed and polished surfaces with some excellent edge beveling. The rotor uses a piece of 21k gold as a weight. The movement is a nice little workhorse offering the time and date.
Being a sport-style watch, it is good to know that the Vacheron Constantin Overseas case has some built-in shock protection as well as anti-magnetic properties thanks to having a soft iron core to ward off magnetic fields that would hurt the movement (protection rated to 25,000A/m). What is different about the two versions in terms of the case is thickness, with the Overseas Chronograph being 12.45mm thick, and this Overseas at 9.7mm.
Inside the watch is the Vacheron Constantin caliber 1226 SC automatic movement. With that said, the caliber 1226 SC might not be the prettiest movement around but it gets the job done and shouldn’t provide you with anything to complain about. With today’s more modern movements showcasing new materials and lower power reserves, one could make the argument that Vacheron Constantin might consider upping the ante with future movements.
Of course, these days the king of anti-magnetism is Omega with their mostly non-magnetic Master Co-Axial movements. Attached to this blue-dialed version of the Vacheron Constantin Overseas is a matching blue alligator strap that comes on a deployment buckle. Blue is certainly an “in” color right now so I think that the overall drama of the watch’s design should be particularly appealing these days. Produced from 143 parts, this relatively thin 3.25mm-thick mechanism operates at 4Hz (28,800bph) with a power reserve of 40 hours. What I can say to sum up the three-hand version of the Vacheron Constantin Overseas is that it is really a sort of the aging star of yesterday that still has appeal today.
While those are the newest models, there is still demand some of the other legacy Vacheron Constantin Overseas collection… So let’s get a bit more acquainted with the more basic Vacheron Constantin Overseas watch by looking at this reference 47040/000A-9008.