Shell up to 11.5 mm high, glossy, of moderate thickness; spire rather evenly conical, 2,25-2.38x higher than aperture; mean spire angle 55-56°, anomphalous.
Colour of protoconch yellowish brown. Teleoconch golden yellow, spirals and nodules predominantly translucent white; inner 3 basal spirals, their interspaces, and columella white. Protoconch 400-430 µm wide, sculptured with network of fine threads that enclose roughly hexagonal spaces. Apical fold tip rounded, terminal varix of moderate strength, rounded.
Teleoconch of up to 7.50 whorls; 1st eighth whorl with 4 similar spiral threads, delineated by growth, scar. First 2 spire whorls convex, subsequent whorls angulated at P3 and distinctly concave between PI and P3, last whorl flattened; suture essentially flush after 3rd whorl; periphery tightly rounded, S3 peripheral, base weakly convex. Spire and basal spirals prominent, rounded, multiplying by intercalation, with rounded conical nodules; axial riblets strong on 1st 3 whorls, weakening and becoming obsolete on 4th whorl, though persisting between P3 and P4. P2 and P3 commencing immediately after post larval growth scar, similar on 1st whorl, P3 stronger thereafter; PI commencing early on 2nd whorl, rapidly enlarging, as large as P2 on 3rd and 4th whorls, after 4th whorl becoming as large as P3 or larger and substantially stronger than P2; P4 weakest, almost entirely covered by succeeding whorls. S1 commencing early 5th or 6th whorl, enlarging to resemble P2; S2 commencing early -mid 4th whorl, enlarging to resemble P2; S3 commencing mid 4th - early 5th whorl, becoming as large as P3. 1 or 2 tertiary spirals occasionally appear after 6th whorl. Basal spirals numbering 11-14, inner 3 strongest, interspaces about as wide as each spiral, on 5th whorl outer 2 and inner 3 spirals nodular, others smooth until after 6th whorl. Collabral growth lines throughout, more prominent on base, on last adult whorl resolving as long, rounded axial riblets that interconnect nodules. Aperture subquadrate. Outer lip thin at rim. thicker within. Inner lip thick. Parietal inductura deposited only in large adults, very thin.
Animal white, snout tip fringed with slender papillae. Cephalic tentacles slender, tapered, finely papillate, large eyes at outer bases. Neck lobes well-developed thin, left considerably larger. Epipodial tentacles numbering 3 right and 4 left.

Calliostoma (Fautor) vaubani is rendered highly distinctive by being concave between P2 and P3 and angulate at P3 on all but the earliest and last teleoconch whorls, and in that PI enlarges to a greater size than P2 after the 4th whorl.

Off northern New Caledonia, 300-550 m. living at 350 m.