News · Vacheron Constantin

Vacheron Constantin lightens its azure for the Overseas at 30

A paler take on the 2016 azure dial arrives on a white gold Overseas Perpetual Calendar Ultra-Thin, limited to 200 pieces.

Hen & Mills Editorial · 4 min read · 26 September 2026

• Vacheron Constantin marks 30 years of the Overseas with a limited Perpetual Calendar Ultra-Thin, reference 4300V/220G-H119, in 18 carat white gold.
• Its lacquered dial uses a new, lighter azure than the 2016 original, with a matching blue moon phase disc and white gold hands and markers.
• The edition is limited to 200 pieces, delivered with a gold bracelet and two rubber straps, and Vacheron Constantin has not published a price.

If you were following along in 2016, when Vacheron Constantin relaunched the Overseas with its third generation, you will remember that it was the blue dial everybody talked about. The brand called the shade azure, and it did what a good colour does, which is attach itself to a watch so firmly that you picture one whenever somebody mentions the other. Ten years on, and thirty years after the Overseas first appeared, Vacheron has gone back to that colour, lightened it, and put it on the ultra-thin perpetual calendar. The result is the Overseas Perpetual Calendar Ultra-Thin Azure Dial, reference 4300V/220G-H119.

Thirty years of a sports watch from a dress house

The Overseas arrived in 1996 as the successor to the 222 of 1977, which, together with the 1975 Chronomètre Royal, is where Vacheron traces the roots of its sporty side. A second generation followed in 2004 with bracelet links that evoke the Maltese cross, and the third in 2016 brought the tool-free strap change system that the collection still uses. For the anniversary, the brand has chosen not a new case or a new movement, but a new shade, in a limited edition of 200 pieces.

A lighter blue than the one we all remember

Vacheron describes the new azure as lighter, less intense and less saturated than the 2016 colour, and the dial is lacquered. On the brand's photographs it has the pale clarity of a winter sky just after sunrise, where the 2016 blue was closer to the sea at midday. The moon phase disc has been done in a matching shade of blue, with the moon itself in 18 carat white gold, and the hands, hour markers and counter markers are all white gold too, with the hour and minute hands and the markers filled with blue Super-LumiNova.

I was ready to be unimpressed by a colour change marking an anniversary this big. Then I looked at how the paler lacquer lets the white gold furniture stand out, which the deeper blue never quite managed, and I came round to it. It is a quieter watch than its predecessor, and I think a better-looking one.

Gold, thin, and familiar underneath

The case is 18 carat white gold, 41.5mm across and just 8.1mm thick, which is remarkably slim for a perpetual calendar that also comes on a solid gold bracelet. Water resistance is 50 metres, enough for a swim if you are braver with a gold perpetual calendar than I am.

It is worth being clear about what is new, because the anniversary framing invites some overstatement. The case and the movement are the ones this watch already had. What Vacheron says has not been seen before is this particular pairing, the lighter azure in a white gold case, and that is the honest size of the news.

A perpetual calendar you can set and forget until 2100

Inside is Vacheron's calibre 1120 QP/1, developed and manufactured in-house, a self-winding movement just 4.05mm thick and 29.6mm across. It runs at 2.75Hz, uses 276 components and 36 jewels, and carries a power reserve of around 40 hours, which is modest, and on a perpetual calendar that matters: if you let it stop, you will be resetting day, date, month and moon, so this is a watch that wants to live on a wrist or a winder. The calendar itself tracks the date, day, month, leap year and moon phases, and needs no correction until 2100.

The watch carries the Geneva Seal. Turn it over and a sapphire caseback shows the 22 carat gold rotor engraved with a compass rose, along with Côtes de Genève and bevelling on the bridges, perlage on the mainplate and satin finishing on the calendar works.

Three ways to wear it, no tools required

The 18 carat white gold bracelet uses links shaped like half a Maltese cross, satin-finished and polished, closed by a triple-blade folding clasp with pushers and an adjustment system. In the box are two more straps, one in white rubber and one in Denim blue rubber, sharing a white gold pin buckle, and all three swap without tools.

The white rubber is the surprise. It will not suit everyone, and on paper it sounds like something for a yacht deck, but against the pale azure it makes the whole watch look lighter, as if it has been left out in the sun for a summer.

A perpetual calendar is a complication that tells you what year it is. It seems fitting that this one was made to mark one.

Vacheron Constantin Overseas Perpetual Calendar Ultra-Thin Azure Dial pricing and availability

The 4300V/220G-H119 is a limited edition of 200 pieces, made to mark the 30th anniversary of the Overseas. Vacheron Constantin has not published a price for it.