But with four patents pending, the transparent sapphire crystal dials break new technical ground. Vacheron not only applied the same techniques used to produce protected documents and currency, it enlisted the services of Orell Füssli Security Printing, a Zurich firm that prints bank notes and Swiss passports. Vacheron and Pfund devised a dial like a dollar bill, with numerous security elements that counterfeiters, who lack the expensive technologies required to produce them, can only hope to cheaply mimic.

The dials undergo a series of processes, including laser engraving (extremely difficult on this hard material), galvanic growth of metal, and metallization. Perhaps the most critical step to prevent counterfeiting, Vacheron coats the clear dials with the same transparent film used on bank notes. The film is printed with micro characters, security inks, and UV markings. Hundreds of miniscule Maltese crosses and concentric circles form patterns on the film on the movement side of the dial, while the top of the dial is marked with linear rays.

Vacheron employed galvanic growth, which deposits metal on the dial to form the numerals three, six, nine, and 12, as well as the brand's Maltese cross beneath the 12. A fine spray of white gold prints on the dial text from 19th-century letters written by Jaques-Barthélémy Vacheron and François Constantin.

Despite all the printing and engraving on the sapphire crystal, the scale is so tiny that it creates a screenlike effect that does not hinder legibility. "The microtext can be read under a magnifying glass," says Pfund. "Fakes cannot achieve such fine printing." A sun, positioned on the dial between 1 and 2 o'clock, changes from white to glowing yellow when placed under a UV lamp.

Finally, each watch comes with a Pfund-designed "passport," made using the same printing and security processes as real passports—from the special paper to the perforated reference number that identifies a single Quai de l'Ile watch.

According to Vacheron's C.E.O. Juan-Carlos Torres, these security features will eventually filter through the entire Vacheron collection to help control counterfeiting. "You have to secure a person's investment," he says. "It's our responsibility."

Quai de l'Ile prices range from about $30,000 to $50,000, and delivery times run about 10 weeks. The watches can be customized much like a made-to-measure suit. Vacheron designed the watch's cushion-shaped case with a modular construction so you can specify metals—titanium, pink gold, and palladium—for various components, including sections of the case, bezel, and crown.

Despite the extreme measures Vacheron took to protect its Quai de l'Ile from counterfeiting, copiers are undoubtedly already working to simulate its distinct architecture. "Fake watches have been around for centuries," says Rich of Sotheby's. "When Breguet was making watches in the late 1700s and early 1800s, people were making copies and signing them 'Breguet.' As long as there has been watchmaking, people have been trying to pass off watches as things that they are not."