• A new generation of complications in the service of “Beauty” appeared in the early 1990s. The “jumping hour” and “retrograde hour” are two well-known examples introduced by Vacheron Constantin from 1824 onwards. Generally
featured on timepieces with finely crafted guilloché, painted or enamelled dials, these two complications were initially developed by watchmakers to offer a new way of reading the time.

• Some wristwatches or pocket watches with this type of complication were still found in the 1920s and 1930s. Retrograde displays then gradually receded from the world of wristwatches, only to be reborn in the 1990s and become an essential complication in the technical world of Vacheron Constantin during the first decade of the third millennium. 

• The Saltarello model, launched in 1997 on the occasion of the “Montres & Bijoux” event in Berlin, is reminiscent of the floor/level indicators found in elevators at the turn of the century. The retrograde movement of the hand is highlighted by
a hand-guilloché motif (a fact mentioned on the dial itself) with beams radiating from the axis of the minutes hand across the entire dial. The applied gold hour-markers and the shiny or matt polishing of the Dauphine-type of the hand set the finishing touch to the dial.

• The design of the cushion-shaped case with its stepped lugs is again the result of a unique aesthetic quest by the designer, combining comfort, legibility and originality. Other subtle details include the openworked caseback, revealing a finely guilloché gold oscillating weight and a case flank hand-engraved with the unique number for each example of this watch produced in a total of 500 units (in pink gold, yellow gold, white gold).

• The retrograde system of this watch, developed by the Vacheron Constantin workshops, has been patented (CH691833A5).