The 1970s were a turbulent time for the watch industry. Switzerland’s prestigious old guard watchmakers were shuttering in the face of a battery-operated revolution. Sales of inexpensive quartz watches from Japan were soaring. In search of a strategy to stay relevant amid this radical shift, the holy trinity of Swiss watchmakers—Audemars Piguet, Patek Philippe, and Vacheron Constantin—all came up with the same Hail Mary play: a watch with sporty looks and made of steel for everyday wear but designed and manufactured to Swiss luxury’s high-end standards.
The designs AP and Patek launched at that time went on to become two of the most revered in all of watch history: the Royal Oak and Nautilus, respectively. However, Vacheron Constantin’s contribution has mostly fallen into the annals of watch-forum nerd-dom, and never broke out with the star power of the other two. In 1977, Vacheron released the 222, its own rugged tool watch with pinkie-up prestige, on the occasion of the company’s 222nd anniversary. The watch was originally in production for just eight years—a few thousand were made at most, with only several hundred reportedly issued in steel. With numbers like that, the 222 was only ever going to be a true underground hero. Until now. After rereleasing the gold version in 2022 to much fanfare, Vacheron is finally bringing back the steel 222 ($32,000)—the watch that should have been an icon.
While the 222 shares its DNA with the Royal Oak and Nautilus, it distinguishes itself in nearly every detail. Both of those latter designs came from Gérald Genta, the best-known watch designer in history, and are inspired by his affinity for all things nautical: The Royal Oak looks like a scuba diving helmet, while the Nautilus mimics a ship’s porthole. For the 222, Vacheron turned to an unproven 20–something named Jörg Hysek, who came up with a subtler design that doesn’t look as if it might smell like saltwater. Hysek integrated the bracelet into a case that’s less curvaceous than the Nautilus’s. In contrast with the Royal Oak’s exposed screws, he gave the bezel a toothy, notched design. Where the 222 differs most from the other watches in its category is how few of them there are in the wild. And when we do see one show its face, it’s either selling for over $200,000 at auction or on the wrists of elite collectors like Brad Pitt.
Though it never reached critical mass in its era, the relatively niche appeal of the 222 is what makes this model’s return for 2025 so exciting. While other luxury sport watches are like characters in the Marvel universe, as familiar and famous to casual fans as they are to the diehards, the 222 signals a more erudite collector. Vacheron has maintained one of the most important assets in creating a hit watch: true rarity. Since the ’90s, the brand has satiated sport-watch-hungry clients with its Overseas models while keeping the 222 in its break-in-case-of-awesome-watch-emergency case.
Now, with the steel 222 release, Vacheron is shattering the glass and letting the icon emerge virtually untouched from when it debuted in ’77. The watch hasn’t been fussed over with unnecessary complications. Even the size remains the same: a svelte 37 mm, which just happens to be the diameter most vintage-crazed collectors are looking for these days.
The surprising thing about this release is that it didn’t come sooner. Luxury sport watches have been the most dominant category among collectors over the better part of the past decade. All that time, Vacheron had this piece idling in its archives. The gold 222 was an immediate hit—stoking the prices of vintage models at auction—but it didn’t nail what makes this watch special. For that, Vacheron Constantin had to return to the play called by the holy trinity in the ’70s. It worked then. It works even better now.
Cam Wolf is GQ’s Watch Editor.
A version of this story originally appeared in the February 2025 issue of GQ with the title “An Underground Icon Comes Out of the Vault”
