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When you think of Jaeger-LeCoultre, chances are that the first thing you picture is the Reverso, with its ingenious (and highly satisfying) hinge mechanism, which essentially enables you to enjoy two watches in one. For an owner, I can imagine flipping it back and forth would become something of a compulsion, and if I were lucky enough to be one of those fortunate souls, it would more than likely become the world’s most premium substitute for a fidget spinner.
However, a fact sometimes overlooked is that Jaeger-LeCoultre is so much more than the Reverso. This year at Watches and Wonders, the Swiss maison has provided a potent reminder of this fact: a trio of watches that had our jaws on the floor, even without that nifty flipping trick offered up by their rectangular brethren. They have plenty of tricks of their own.
Each of these three releases is a showstopper in its own right, and combined, they’re a one-two-three blow knockout. They’re formidable watches with names to match: The Master Hybris Mechanica Ultra Thin Minute Repeater Tourbillon, the Master Grande Tradition Tourbillon Jumping Date, and the Master Hybris Inventiva Gyrotourbillon À Stratosphère all illustrate the sheer breadth of Jaeger-LeCoultre’s powers, the potency of its designs, and the incomparable technical skill of its artisans, acting as a reminder of why those in the know hold Jaeger-LeCoultre in the highest of esteem.
Master Hybris Mechanica Ultra Thin Minute Repeater Tourbillon
The embodiment of visual and sonic elegance, the first watch in this trio is the world’s thinnest automatic minute repeater tourbillon, thanks in large part to a new interpretation of Jaeger-LeCoultre’s ultra-thin Calibre 362 movement. This unites the delightful chiming tones of a minute repeater with the visual splendour of a flying tourbillon (a beautiful realisation of the mechanism that compensates for gravity’s effects on the watch’s regulating organ). From its 18k pink gold case, which measures just 8.25 mm thick, to the pared-back dial that forms an open-worked ring encircling the movement, the Master Hybris Mechanica Ultra Thin Minute Repeater Tourbillon is a thing of beauty that squeezes an extraordinary amount of Jaeger-LeCoultre’s watchmaking prowess into its slim case.
This new incarnation of the Calibre 362 has been designed to showcase the entirety of the movement like never before. With an assembly that takes a total of seven weeks to complete and features an astonishing 593 components, every one of these limited-edition pieces is an expression of the heights of watchmaking ambition.
To better showcase this for the wearer, Jaeger-LeCoultre developed three bridges constructed from transparent sapphire crystal rather than metal. These bridges were finished with polishing, anti-reflective coating, and an anti-static treatment. However, this move interfered with the setting of the movement’s 11 rubies. As these could not be set into the sapphire, Jaeger-LeCoultre’s artisans used 18k pink gold chatons, meeting the challenge presented by the sapphire bridges, while also making the movement even more beautiful.
Across the watch, 14 different decorative methods have been deployed, with time-intensive hand-finishing techniques throughout. This dedication to detail is perhaps best exemplified by the 48 inner angles and 60 hand-bevelled components that adorn the movement itself, which goes some way to explaining where the seven weeks were necessary.
- Reference: Q13125S2
- Case: 18k pink gold (750/1000)
- Dimensions: 41.4 mm x 8.25 mm
- Calibre: Automatic Jaeger-LeCoultre Calibre 362
- Functions: Hours and minutes; minute repeater with silent-timelapse reduction, one-minute flying tourbillon
- Power reserve: 42 hours
- Dial: White Gold, open-worked
- Water resistance: 30 metres
- Strap: Brown alligator leather with small-scale lining; 18k pink gold pin buckle
- Limited edition: 10 pieces
- Price: POA
Master Grande Tradition Tourbillon Jumping Date
When the Calibre 978 was introduced in 2009, it won the first modern-era chronometry competition thanks to both its extreme precision and reliability during wear. With the Master Grande Tradition Tourbillon Jumping Date, Jaeger-LeCoultre has built upon this achievement, releasing a version of the movement with a tourbillon made of 64 components, and with the whole weighing less than 0.5 grams. It’s so intricate, light, and small that it’s hard to wrap one’s head around it.
This new watch also retains the Calibre 978’s jumping-date mechanism, which, without sounding reductive, is a lot of fun. The complication sees the dates displayed around the periphery of the dial, with the numbers 15 and 16 separated by an angle of nearly 90 degrees as they’re positioned on either side of the tourbillon aperture. As the date moves from the 15th to the 16th of each month, the date hand jumps from the former to the latter, avoiding obscuring the tourbillon in the process.
Further, the watch features a 24-hour disc that can be adjusted independently from the main hour and minute hands. It offers day and night indicators and can either be synchronised with the primary time display or repurposed as a second time-zone indicator.
This disc and the tourbillon’s two 18k white gold upper bridges have been intricately polished to create a perfectly rounded half-moon profile via a technique known as berçage: the use of a burnishing file in a rocking motion. Viewed through the watch’s transparent sapphire caseback, the bridges are decorated with sunray-style stripes, which is a Jaeger-LeCoultre signature finish known as Côtes de Genève soleillé.
The Master Grande Tradition Tourbillon Jumping Date’s intoxicating combination of the uber premium and the playful is all contained within a 42 mm case that comprises 60 components constructed from 18k pink gold. Multiple high-polished, brushed, and micro-blasted finishes are deployed throughout, creating the perfect stage on which light can dance, a fitting way to protect the remarkable watchmaking contained within.
- Reference: Q4202480
- Case: 18k pink gold (750/1000)
- Dimensions: 42 mm x 12.5 mm
- Calibre: Automatic Jaeger-LeCoultre Calibre 978
- Functions: Hours, minutes, seconds (tourbillon subdial); jumping date; second time zone with 24-hour indicator; one-minute tourbillon
- Power reserve: 45 hours
- Front dial: Blue enamel Barleycorn pattern
- Water resistance: 50 metres
- Strap: Black alligator leather with small-scale lining; 18K Pink Gold (750/1000) folding buckle
- Limited edition: 100 pieces
- Price: POA
Master Hybris Inventiva Gyrotourbillon À Stratosphère
The final piece in this remarkable trilogy is the Master Hybris Inventiva Gyrotourbillon À Stratosphère. It’s an exercise in precision with the Calibre 178’s triple-access tourbillon at its core. According to the watchmaker, it’s the most precise tourbillon wristwatch with the widest positional coverage the maison has ever created.
As I mentioned earlier, a tourbillon compensates for the effects of gravity on the watch’s regulating organ. It’s meant to accommodate the angle of the watch as it travels throughout the day on the wearer’s wrist, and this new tourbillon’s three axes cover 98 per cent of possible positions. This is achieved through 189 components of the Gyrotourbillon À Stratosphère alone, which is a new patent-pending construction, and weighs a mere 0.78 grams.
In addition to the tourbillon, the Calibre 178 movement is a thing of extravagant beauty, decorated with an overwhelming total of 16 different techniques: sandblasting, perlage, polishing, flat polishing, straight graining, linear brushing, circular brushing, Côtes de Genève, diamond polishing, snailing, sunray brushing, bevelling, guillochage, lacquering, lapping finish, and enamelling. Excuse me while I take a breath. The effect is powerful, transforming something mechanical into a mix of sculpture and canvas for Jaeger-LeCoultre’s artisans.
Even in a world where decoration of movements is to some extent expected, this is something truly special, a compliment that’s easy to extend to each of these masterful pieces from Jaeger-LeCoultre.
- Reference: Q5306480
- Case: Platinum (950/1000)
- Dimensions: 42 mm x 16.15 mm
- Calibre: Manually wound Jaeger-LeCoultre Calibre 178
- Functions: Hours, minutes, seconds; triple-axis Gyrotourbillon À Stratosphère
- Power reserve: 72 hours
- Dial: Ring dial decorated with guilloché and translucent blue enamel
- Water resistance: 50 metres
- Strap: Blue alligator leather with small scale lining; 18K white gold (750/1000) adjustable folding buckle
- Limited edition: 20 pieces
- Price: POA
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