An immersive retrospective that leads visitors on a journey through nine decades of timeless modernity, Reverso Stories has previously welcomed thousands of visitors in Shanghai and Paris. It explores the creative and cultural universe of this exceptional timepiece and features a specially commissioned art installation by the American artist Michael Murphy, as well as many historic artefacts and a selection of milestone Reverso watches from the earliest time-only models to the ground-breaking Reverso Hybris Mechanica Calibre 185. The exhibition invites visitors to experience the story of Reverso through four different themes: its origins; style and design; innovation and craftsmanship.

After touring the exhibition, Kim Woo-Bin said: “It’s a great pleasure to discover the Reverso Stories exhibition in Seoul. It is a unique cultural experience and the way the story is told through four different themes brings it to life in a fascinating way. It’s very impressive to see so many archive materials and heritage documents that are rarely shown in public, as well as historic and modern Reverso watches.”

Seen in Korea for the first time, Michael Murphy’s installation Space Time is an enthralling rendition of the Reverso Nonantième that transports visitors through the three physical dimensions of space and the fourth dimension of time. Another highlight of the exhibition is the 1931 Café, a chic setting designed in homage to the Art Deco origins of Reverso, which offers a special menu of sweets and cakes created exclusively for Jaeger-LeCoultre by the Parisian pastry chef Nina Métayer.

The “Reverso: Timeless Stories Since 1931” exhibition and the 1931 Café will be open from May 25^th to June 12^th on Monday through Friday from 11:30am to 8:30pm and on the weekend from 11:00am to 9:00pm at S FACTORY, 11 Yeonmujang 15-gil, Seongdong-gu, Seoul, Republic of Korea. 

The exhibition is free to the public, booking is recommended at THE REVERSO STORIES 전시회 서울 | Jaeger-LeCoultre (thereversostoriesseoul.com). Audio guides are available for the exhibition. 

Nicknamed the Atmos Tellurium, this is the most complex Atmos clock ever created, pushing the limits of both precision and design, and the intricacy and architectural beauty of its movement naturally inspired the artisans of Jaeger-LeCoultre’s Métiers Rares® atelier. Dedicating a wide range of their craft skills to its decoration – from miniature-painting and laser-engraving to lacquer-work and meteorite inlay – they have elevated the Atmos Hybris Mechanica Calibre 590 to become a sublime work of art as well as an outstanding timekeeping device.

· Pushing the boundaries of precision and design, the Atmos Hybris Mechanica Calibre 590 is the most complex Atmos clock ever created, requiring more than four years of research and development work

· New Calibre 590 incorporates a complication that reproduces the true cycles of the Earth, Sun, and Moon

· The artisans of Jaeger-LeCoultre’s Métiers Rares® atelier dedicated a wide range of craft skills to its decoration, transforming an outstanding timekeeping device into a sublime work of art

Measuring Time as the Planets Move

In the very beginning, thanks to the movements of stars and planets, mankind became aware of the passing of time and began to define and measure it. Days, with periods of light and darkness, were defined by one complete rotation of Earth on its axis; years were defined by the time it takes for the Sun to return to the same position in the sky, completing a full cycle of seasons.

Over the millennia, scientists invented instruments to reproduce these cycles and enhance their understanding of celestial phenomena. Clock-makers began to measure time by using the values of the various astronomical cycles – although the units of standard civil time are only approximate, based on the average values of solar, lunar and sidereal cycles. In 1543, Copernicus revolutionised scientific thinking with the publication of his heliocentric model of the solar system (first hypothesised by the Ancient Greek astronomer Aristarchus of Samos, the model had been discounted for more than 1,500 years in favour of an Earth-centred model).  The heliocentric model places the Sun, rather than Earth, at the centre of our solar system and its publication triggered the invention of the tellurion (also written as tellurium), a three-dimensional mechanical mobile that illustrates the relative positions and movements of Earth and the Moon in relation to the Sun. From the 18th century onwards, elaborate clocks were sometimes surmounted by these fascinating mechanisms. The nickname of Calibre 590 –‘Tellurium’ – is a tribute to those magnificent clocks.

Invented in 1928, the Atmos needs no human intervention to wind its movement; a temperature variation of just one degree Celsius provides sufficient energy to wind it for 48 hours, enabling it to run perpetually if kept under normal everyday conditions. Because this remarkable system produces only a small amount of energy – some 40 times less energy than a traditional 4Hz watch movement typically offers – the Atmos movement has been designed to consume as little energy as possible, with the balance taking one minute to perform a complete oscillation.

Over time, Jaeger-LeCoultre’s watchmakers have mastered the challenge of adding functions to the mechanism without substantially increasing energy consumption. In doing so, they have discovered that the complications best suited to the Atmos are those based on longer cycles, such as the seasons, months and phases of the moon.

A New Complication and a Captivating Display

The new Calibre 590 was entirely conceived, designed and constructed within the Manufacture Jaeger-LeCoultre and assembled in the Atmos atelier, a workshop solely dedicated to Atmos. Comprising 443 components, with the tellurium complication fully integrated into the movement, it required more than four years of research and development – its technical complexity and sophistication naturally meriting a place in Jaeger-LeCoultre’s Hybris Mechanica collection. As well as reproducing with precision the rotation of Earth on its own axis, and the orbits of the Moon around Earth and Earth around the Sun, the new calibre indicates the corresponding months and seasons with a zodiacal calendar.

The clock face is defined by a peripheral ring formed of two layers. The upper layer, fixed in place, is marked with an hour-and-minute track and the names of the seasons; this conceals a mobile ring marked with the months, which appear in an aperture at 6 o’clock. Set within this frame is a disc of translucent blue sapphire crystal, laser-engraved with the zodiac signs. At the centre of the dial, the sun is represented by a burst of polished golden metal rays.

Close to the peripheral ring, balanced by a wedge-shaped counterweight, a circle of meteorite frames a transparent sapphire disc into which a spherical Earth and Moon are set. The Earth rotates on its axis in 24 hours, the length of a civil day, providing a night-day indication as it revolves. At the same time, the Moon orbits Earth in one synodic month, turning on its own axis to show its phases. Defined by one complete cycle of moon phases, a mean synodic month is 29 days, 12 hours, 44 minutes and 2 seconds in length. This mean (or average) duration allows for the slight variation caused by the elliptical shape of the Moon’s orbit. The mechanism of the Atmos is so close to this mean that it creates only one day of error in 5,770 years.

This entire Earth-and-Moon disc orbits around the central Sun, making a complete rotation in one solar (or “tropical”) year, indicating the seasons as it turns. Jaeger-LeCoultre’s watchmakers have succeeded in establishing a cycle of 365.2466 days. This is so close to the reference value of 365.2425 days found in the Gregorian calendar that it varies by only one day in 390 years, meaning that it will not need adjusting until the year 2412 (the only adjustment is the seasonal change).

‘Fully visible from every angle, the entire mechanism seems to hover in space within its cylindrical cabinet of glass. In fact, it is supported, and attached to the base by a virtually invisible glass cloche, which also encloses the annular balance. Like the main body of the movement, the balance also seems to floating as it performs its slow and mesmerising dance.’ explains Lionel Favre, Jaeger-LeCoultre Design Director.

Naturally, this extraordinary mechanism has inspired the artisans of Jaeger-LeCoultre’s Métiers Rares® atelier to dedicate a wide range of their craft skills to its decoration. Miniature painting adds detail and depth to the spherical Earth; laser engraving evokes the surface of the Moon; lacquer brings a rich glow to the main dial ring; and meteorite – material that has literally fallen from space – is inlaid on the Earth-Moon ring; and the glass cabinet has been hand-painted with a delicate rendering of the constellations.

The most complex Atmos clock ever created, the new Atmos Hybris Mechanica Calibre 590 pushes the limits of precision and design a step further with a perpetual mechanism complemented by a tellurion that perpetuates time to almost infinity. It showcases this remarkable achievement in the form of a true work of art.

TECHNICAL DETAILS

ATMOS HYBRIS MECHANICA CALIBRE 590

Dimensions: 215mm diameter x 253mm height

Calibre: perpetual Jaeger-LeCoultre Calibre 590

Frequency: annular balance with 60-second oscillation

Functions: hours, minutes, night & day, month, moon phases, zodiacal calendar

Cabinet: cylindrical glass hand-painted with the constellations

Decorative finishes: inlaid meteorite; engraving; miniature painting; lacquer

Reference: Q5765300 - Limited edition of 10 pieces

Key Points of the Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso Hybris Mechanica Calibre 185 (Quadriptyque)

The world’s first watch with four faces; the most complicated Reverso timepiece ever made

A total of 11 complications, including perpetual calendar, minute repeater, indications of the synodic, draconic and anomalistic cycles (never before presented together in a wristwatch), requiring 12 patents

Combines Jaeger-LeCoultre’s uncontested mastery of chiming watches, precision mechanisms, astronomical complications and ultra-compact watchmaking

User-friendly design and construction; the most complicated Reverso is also one of the easiest to wear

Geneva, April 7^th, 2021 — With 188 years of relentless innovation and savoir-faire behind it, Jaeger-LeCoultre continually sets new boundaries in the domain of fine mechanical watchmaking. Its Hybris Mechanica series of ground-breaking, ultra-complicated timepieces has established a constellation of stars shining with unparalleled brilliance in the horological heavens. In 2021, the latest addition to this celestial assemblage is a grand oeuvre six years in the making — the Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso Hybris Mechanica Calibre 185 Quadriptyque, the first watch in the world with four faces of timekeeping indications.

Since the advent of personal timepieces, the quest to build increasingly complicated watches is constrained by the volume of space available to the watchmaker. Having a multitude of complications in a watch is pointless unless they can be legibly and comprehensibly displayed, and the watch can be reasonably worn. Liberated by the unique design of the iconic Reverso, Jaeger-LeCoultre has created a world’s first: a double-faced case continuously driven by the in-house Calibre 185, and a double-faced cradle with indications synced and updated by the primary movement every day at the stroke of midnight by an ingenious mechanical system proprietary to Jaeger-LeCoultre.

If executed through conventional mechanical means, the 11 complications of the Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso Hybris Mechanica Calibre 185 Quadriptyque would result in a timepiece far more suited for a desk than a wrist. Thanks to nearly two centuries of expertise and a thoroughly modern approach to innovation, Jaeger-LeCoultre tells the story of cosmic and terrestrial time within the confines of a 51mm by 31mm by 15mm case, a story told in four chapters of horological virtuosity.

CHAPTER ONE: SET THE UNIVERSE

The history of Jaeger-LeCoultre is rooted in the pursuit and attainment of precision. One of the earliest inventions of founder Antoine LeCoultre was the millionometer, the first instrument able to measure the micron. Today, Jaeger-LeCoultre is an undisputed pioneer and leader in creating exceptional executions of the tourbillon, a mechanism designed to enhance the chronometric performance of a timepiece. The Reverso Hybris Mechanica Gyrotourbillon 2 (2008) stunned audiences and won chronometry awards with its multi-axial revolving balance, and the Reverso Hybris Mechanica à Triptyque (2006) remains unique in its use of a tourbillon with a high-precision ellipse isometer escapement.

Naturally, the tourbillon is one of the main protagonists of the new Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso Hybris Mechanica Calibre 185 (Quadriptyque). Occupying the 7 o’clock position on the recto face of the case, a flying tourbillon (thus called because the absence of an upper bridge allows it to appear as if it is floating) makes one rotation a minute, continuously varying the position of the balance in order to achieve a single corrected average time measurement.

The balance is the heart of any watch movement, and it is also the key to our measurement of time. As it beats in regular cadences of 3Hz (21,600vph), every six beats mark the passing of one second. The seconds accumulate into minutes, into hours, days, weeks, months and years. The recto face of the Quadriptyque case, illustrating the uppermost abilities of mechanical horology, shows the indications of a perpetual calendar, a centuries-old mechanism that always displays the correct date despite the irregular number of days each month. It also takes leap years into account, displaying a 29^th day in the month of February every four years. Highlighting the precision of the Jaeger-LeCoultre Calibre 185 construction, the perpetual calendar indications are instantaneous, changing at the stroke of midnight. In addition, the complexities of the Calibre 185 construction required the date to be displayed at the 5 o’clock position on the dial. At Jaeger-LeCoultre, only the perfect legibility of a grande date was considered acceptable for a watch of such prestige, which necessitated the creation of a new system of date display discs in order to accommodate the dimensions of the flying tourbillon at 7 o’clock. The opening chapter of the Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso Hybris Mechanica Calibre 185 (Quadriptyque) is nothing less than a powerful statement of how la Grande Maison has comprehensively mastered the expression of civil time.

CHAPTER TWO: CHIME THE HEAVENS

There are extremely few watchmaking manufactures that possess in-house expertise in sonnerie wristwatches. There are even fewer that have been making them since 1870, accumulating one and a half centuries of experience and savoir-faire. There exists only one watchmaking manufacture that has over 200 chiming watch calibres in its historical and modern inventory — La Grande Maison du Sentier. The verso face of the Quadriptyque case is a virtuoso tour de force of Jaeger-LeCoultre’s patrimony as a master and innovator of chiming watches.

With the slide of a lever located just above the crown, the Quadriptyque unleashes its melody. First, a series of low notes, correlating to the number of hours. Second, an alternating couplet of high and low notes, corresponding to the quarter-hours. And concluding the melody, a succession of high notes, indicating the number of minutes to be added to the elapsed quarters. In concert, the hours-quarters-minutes chime plays the current time in musical code. The striking works of the Reverso Quadriptyque are completely exposed alongside a secondary time display, indicating the same time as the recto dial, but in a jumping-hours and peripheral-minutes format. As the Quadriptyque strikes the time, setting a symphony of springs, cams, hammers and gongs into motion, their acoustic report confirms the visual display of the secondary dial.

Visible through apertures on the movement plate hand-decorated with the guillochage motif known as clous de Paris are elements of the chiming mechanism uniquely associated with the sonnerie expertise of Jaeger-LeCoultre. These include the silent chime governor, patented by the manufacture in 1895 to eliminate the buzzing noise created by the older anchor system. More recent in-house innovations showcased in the Quadriptyque are the crystal gongs (first seen in the Master Minute Repeater Antoine LeCoultre of 2005) that attach the repeater gongs directly to the sapphire crystal to exploit the material’s optimal acoustic properties, the square cross-sectional profile of the gongs themselves that maximise contact and energy transmission between the hammers and gongs (a mainstay of Jaeger-LeCoultre’s repeating watches since 2006), and the articulated trebuchet hammers (developed for the 2009 Hybris Mechanica Duomètre à Grande Sonnerie) that deliver a clean and strong strike to the gongs. In totality, these innovations allow Jaeger-LeCoultre minute repeaters to produce some of the loudest and clearest chiming wristwatches today.

Debuting in the Reverso Hybris Mechanica Calibre 185 is a completely novel engineering of the chiming components to create a seamless chime with no pauses in between the hours, quarters and minutes. The conventional minute repeater mechanism utilises special pivoting racks that read the time off a series of cams and then proceed to activate each group of chimed notes in turn. This often results in silent gaps between the groups of chimed notes, especially when there are only hours and minutes to be struck, with no intervening quarters. The Hybris Mechanica Master Ultra Thin Minute Repeater Flying Tourbillon (2014) and Master Grande Tradition Gyrotourbillon Westminster Perpétuel (2019) made exceptional strides in chiming know-how by reducing these silent gaps, but the Reverso Quadriptyque has reached the ultimate stage of expertise in this area. By refining and inverting specific steps in this mechanical sequence, the Quadriptyque has succeeded in eliminating these gaps entirely.

The chime of the Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso Hybris Mechanica Calibre 185 is an uninterrupted opus of acoustic excellence. It is the sound of innovation at its very apex.

CHAPTER THREE: UNCOVER THE ORBIT

Before the formal development of time reckoning systems, primitive societies observed celestial phenomena and created powerful myths and stories around the dance of the heavenly orbs above. The earliest astronomers were also mathematicians, and instruments constructed on their formulations were able to mechanically compute the positions of various celestial objects. The interaction between the various orbits of the Sun, Earth and Moon determine the rhythms of life, and watchmaking first evolved as a means to bring order to the world around us. As a watch manufacture with close to two centuries of fine watchmaking expertise, Jaeger-LeCoultre has mastered all aspects of time expression, from the quotidian to the esoteric. One of the hallmark complications of Jaeger-LeCoultre is the display of sidereal time, time that is determined with reference to the stars instead of the Sun, first presented in the Master Grande Tradition Grande Complication (2010).

This year, for the first time ever in the history of mechanical horology, Jaeger-LeCoultre unites three displays of lunar information — the synodic cycle, the draconic cycle and the anomalistic cycle — in a single wristwatch. This unique micromechanical combination of indications, located on the interior face of the cradle of the Reverso Hybris Mechanica Calibre 185, allows the determination of eclipse events (both solar and lunar) and rare lunar phenomena such as supermoons.

Occupying the top half of the interior face of the cradle of the Reverso Quadriptyque is a massive representation of the phases of the moon in the Northern Hemisphere. A laser-engraved moon is progressively covered and revealed by a mobile blue lacquer disc with gold glitter décor, corresponding to the age of the moon in the synodic cycle. While conventional displays of the moon phase accumulate one day of error after 32.5 months, the moon phase display of the Quadriptyque requires only one adjustment after 1,111 years.

Just below the moon phase display, on the left, is a counter with a three-dimensional micro-sculpted pink-gold sun orbited by a tiny hemispherical moon. This counter shows the draconic cycle, showing when the path of the Moon intersects with the orbit of the Earth around the Sun (known as the ecliptic). Such an intersection takes place twice in each cycle, indicated by the horizontal alignment on the counter of the moon and the sun. At this time, the Moon, Earth and Sun are all on the same plane; however, they may not be aligned. For them to be aligned, a phenomenon known as syzygy, an additional condition must be fulfilled — the Moon must be either in its new or full phase. When that happens, an eclipse event happens on Earth, either a lunar eclipse if the Moon is in its full phase, or a solar eclipse if the Moon is in its new phase. However, the actual visibility of the eclipse is dependent on various factors such as the geographical position of the viewer.

To the right of the draconic cycle counter is a domed representation of the Earth, micro-painted in enamel, with a hemispherical moon in eccentric orbit around it. This counter represents the anomalistic cycle, showing the varying distance between the Earth and Moon. At its apogee, the Moon is at its furthest distance from the Earth and is closest at its perigee. When the Moon is in its full phase near or at the perigee, an event known as a supermoon occurs, in which the Moon can appear to be up to 14 percent larger than usual in the sky.

The display of the synodic, draconic and anomalistic cycle together in a wristwatch is unprecedented in horology, with the latter two indications protected by patent, making the Reverso Hybris Mechanica Calibre 185 the only watch ever made to provide such depth of information about astronomical phenomena.

The Hybris Mechanica family of timepieces at Jaeger-LeCoultre began with the 2003 Atmos Mystérieuse and has since grown to encompass close to 20 groundbreaking horological creations, including the Master Hybris Mechanica Gyrotourbillon 1 (2004), the Reverso Hybris Mechanica Grande Complication à Triptyque (2006), the Master Ultra Thin Minute Repeater Flying Tourbillon (2014) and the Master Grande Tradition Gyrotourbillon Westminster Perpétuel (2019). The word Hybris originates from the Greek “hubris” that refers to the soaring ambition exhibited by the legendary heroes of antiquity. It is a promise made by Jaeger-LeCoultre to continually expand the horizons of watchmaking; a promise that has been dutifully kept for 18 years.

CHAPTER FOUR: REVERSE THE UNIVERSE

The Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso was born in 1931, out of the need to protect delicate horological mechanisms amidst the balletic skirmish of hooves and mallets during games of polo. Today, 90 years later, a far older dance is reflected in the Reverso Hybris Mechanica Quadriptyque, one that guides our calendrical rhythms according to rules that are as precise and structured as those of the regal equestrian sport.

The original Reverso bore a single time-telling face, with a mobile case that could be turned over within its cradle, revealing a solid caseback. The next generation of the Reverso featured another dial on its caseback, either in a different design to accommodate the wearer’s aesthetic preference (Duetto) or displaying a second time zone (Duoface) to offer additional functionality when travelling. The Reverso Hybris Mechanica à Triptyque (2006) represented an evolutionary leap in horological innovation, with a third display positioned on the interior face of the Reverso cradle.

This year, the world’s first wristwatch with four faces premieres in the form of the Reverso Hybris Mechanica Calibre 185 (Quadriptyque), the ultimate expression of the Reverso concept. On the last face of the Quadriptyque, the exterior face of the cradle, a representation of the phases of the Moon in the Southern Hemisphere is shown. Most indications of the moon phase are of the Northern Hemisphere perspective, and the Quadriptyque’s display of the Southern Hemisphere moon phase on its fourth face is the fulfilment of the Reverso’s fundamental dualism. A star-flecked sky chart, engraved and lacquered in a gradient of blue shades forms the backdrop to the pink-gold moon, all of which are created in the Atelier des Métiers Rares® of Jaeger-LeCoultre.

The secret to the Reverso Hybris Mechanica Quadriptyque’s four functioning display faces lies in a solution first used in the 2006 Reverso Hybris Mechanca Grande Complication à Triptyque. Every day at midnight, a pin extends out of the main case movement to activate a mechanical corrector in the cradle, which then advances the cradle displays. The mechanism driving the cradle displays is set directly into the cradle itself, without any additional movement plates that would increase the thickness of the watch. Jaeger-LeCoultre’s expertise in ultra-compact watchmaking makes the Quadriptyque, despite its multiple indications and complications, one of the most wearable high-complication watches of our time.

PRESENTING INFINITY

The Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso Hybris Mechanica Calibre 185 comes in an exceptional presentation box with a built-in mechanism that allows the wearer to quickly and intuitively set all the calendar and astronomical displays of the watch after a period of being unworn.

A two-position crown on the side of the box is used to first set the number of days that have elapsed since the watch was last worn. With the Quadriptyque set within the correction support frame, the box corrector crown can then be extended to its second position and wound to rapidly bring the watch to the current date for all calendar and astronomical indications. There is no risk of overcorrecting the watch or damaging the movement, since the entire process is controlled by the box corrector mechanism.

The latest timepiece in the Hybris Mechanica series took six years of research and development. It was made possible only through the 188 years of innovation and expertise accrued within the workshops of La Grande Maison. With the Reverso Hybris Mechanica Calibre 185 Quadriptyque, Jaeger-LeCoultre reasserts its position at the apogee of mechanical watchmaking and reaffirms its dedication to expanding the boundaries of horological knowledge

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

REVERSO HYBRIS MECHANICA CALIBRE 185

Case material: White gold

Case dimensions: 51.2 x 31 mm

Thickness: 15.15 mm

Movement: Manually wound Jaeger-LeCoultre Calibre 185

Functions:

Face 1: Hour – Minute, Tourbillon (indicating the Second), Instantaneous Perpetual Calendar, Grande Date, Day, Month, Leap Year, Night & Day

Face 2: Jumping Digital Hour, Minute, Minute Repeater (with system avoiding dead time)

Face 3: Northern Hemisphere Moon Phase, Draconic Lunar Cycle (height of the moon), Anomalistic Lunar Cycle (apogee and perigee), Month, Year

Face 4: Southern Hemisphere Moon Phase

Power reserve: 50 hours

Water resistance: 30 metres

Strap: Blue alligator

Reference: Q7103420

Limited edition of 10 pieces

Key points of the Jaeger-LeCoultre Master Grande Tradition Gyrotourbillon Westminster Perpétuel

• The fifth multi-axis tourbillon from Jaeger-LeCoultre, with a size reduction in the redesigned tourbillon component to create a more wearable watch
• A Westminster carillon minute repeater that replicates the chime of the famed Big Ben clock tower in London, with a silence-reduction mechanism to optimise melody cadence
• Incorporates a one-minute constant-force mechanism to provide consistent energy to the sensitive tourbillon, resulting in a precisely jumping minute hand and a more precise minute repeater mechanism
• A sleek new contemporary aesthetic that pairs traditional haut-de-gamme finishing with modern, wearable watches at the top of the mechanical watchmaking hierarchy

JANUARY 2019 — The Master Grande Tradition Gyrotourbillon Westminster Perpétuel is the latest generation of multi-axis tourbillon to emerge from Jaeger-LeCoultre, following the 2004 Master Gyrotourbillon 1, the 2008 Reverso Gyrotourbillon 2, the 2013 Master Grande Tradition Gyrotourbillon 3 Jubilee and the 2016 Reverso Tribute Gyrotourbillon.

Precision tourbillons are a noted speciality of Jaeger-LeCoultre, as proven by the 2009 Concours International de Chronométrie timing competition, in which the top two prizes were awarded to Jaeger-LeCoultre. The strength in creating high-precision tourbillons goes hand-in-hand with the mastery required to engineer the visually spectacular Gyrotourbillon watches. Even with the considerable energy demands of the large multi-axis tourbillon, chronometric performance must not be affected. Reconciling the needs of the Gyrotourbillon with impeccable chronometric requirements is a balancing feat that can only be accomplished with the experience and skill of a 186-year-old watchmaking manufacture.

Further advancing the art of multi-axis tourbillons, the Master Grande Tradition Gyrotourbillon Westminster Perpétuel features a tourbillon that is significantly smaller than those in the preceding Gyrotourbillon timepieces. As a rule, reducing the size of a mechanism also reduces its error tolerance, which is why successful miniaturisation efforts are so highly valued and complex. In creating a smaller tourbillon, Jaeger-LeCoultre has created a truly wearable Gyrotourbillon, bringing high complication out of the watch safe and onto the wrist for everyday enjoyment.

The Westminster chime is familiar to everyone as the famous melody of the Big Ben clock at the Palace of Westminster in London. Its four-phrase melody is composed of four notes played in different sequences and different quantities at each quarter of the hour. The Master Grande Tradition Gyrotourbillon Westminster Perpétuel uses four sets of gongs and hammers to create the Westminster chime to indicate the quarters when the minute repeater is activated, incorporating a complex mechanism that places it at the most prestigious tier of chiming watches.

The most beautiful chime can be marred by interruptions and gaps of silence between the strikes. In order to create a chime of unmatched euphony, the Master Grande Tradition Gyrotourbillon Westminster Perpétuel has a silence-reduction function built into its chiming mechanism. This ensures that even when the full set of Westminster quarters is not struck, there is no time delay corresponding to the missing quarters before the minutes are struck. In every instance of the chime when the Master Grande Tradition Gyrotourbillon Westminster Perpétuel is activated, the hour strikes, quarter strikes and minute strikes are seamlessly joined.

Precision lies at the heart of the Master Grande Tradition Gyrotourbillon Westminster Perpétuel, with a one-minute constant-force mechanism that provides a consistent level of power for the energy-hungry tourbillon without affecting its chronometric ability. The constant-force mechanism consists of a spring, known classically as a remontoir d’égalité, that is periodically re-armed by the mainspring and acts as a secondary power source to protect the regulating organ of the movement.

In the Master Grande Tradition Gyrotourbillon Westminster Perpétuel, the constant-force mechanism has an additional advantage. It regulates the motion of the minute wheel, creating a jumping minutes hand that offers greater precision in time display. More significantly, the mechanism that controls the minute strike also follows this one-minute jumping system, which completely eliminates the chiming error that can occur when the repeater is activated between minutes, when the chime played and the time shown can be one minute apart.

Besides the multi-axis tourbillon, which highlights the cinematic virtuosity of fine watchmaking at Jaeger-LeCoultre, and the minute repeater, which showcases in-house mastery of the most sophisticated complications, the Master Grande Tradition Gyrotourbillon Westminster Perpétuel also features the one horological function with the greatest everyday relevance and pragmatic value — the perpetual calendar. As the name suggests, the perpetual calendar is designed to work in perpetuity. It automatically displays the correct date without the need for manual adjustment between months of different lengths. It even takes into account the extra day at the end of February during leap years. The most common configuration of the perpetual calendar mechanism can only be adjusted in one direction, but the Master Grande Tradition Gyrotourbillon Westminster Perpétuel emphasises the experience and convenience of the user, and its date can be adjusted forwards or backwards without harming the movement. The pointer-style date indication further reinforces the precision aspect of the timepiece, as it jumps over the tourbillon aperture in order to provide the best possible view of the visually stunning rotating escapement.

The Master Grande Tradition Gyrotourbillon Westminster Perpétuel is the result of 186 years of fine watchmaking expertise and a spirit of innovation that continues to this day. Reflecting the blend of patrimony and modernity is the design of the watch, which emphasises the round profile of the Master Grande Tradition case. A retractable minute repeater pusher, first seen in the Master Ultra Thin Minute Repeater Flying Tourbillon, preserves the smooth lines of the case. Hand guillochage, fine hammering (martelage) and grand feu enamel are part of the canon of fine watchmaking finish and have been practiced at Jaeger-LeCoultre throughout its history — most outstandingly in the dazzling Hybris Artistica collection. In the Master Grande Tradition Gyrotourbillon Westminster Perpétuel, however, these finishes are expressed in a subtle and contemporary way, culminating in the openworked dial — produced either in a striking deep-blue grand feu enamel or in a more classic silver-grained version — showcasing the mesmerising multi-axis tourbillon. These age-old techniques are skilfully practised by master artisans from the in-house Metiers Rares atelier of Jaeger-LeCoultre, where haut-de-gamme traditional finish is also applied to the movement by hand.

The Sound of Precision

There are extremely few watchmaking manufactures that possess in-house expertise in sonnerie wristwatches. There are even fewer that have been making them since 1870, accumulating one and a half centuries of experience and savoir-faire. There is only one watchmaking manufacture in the world that has over 200 chiming watch calibers in its historical and modern inventory — La Grande Maison du Sentier.

The Master Grande Tradition Gyrotourbillon Westminster Perpétuel brings together a panoply of chiming innovations and improvements that were first debuted by Jaeger-LeCoultre, representing the epitome of horological creativity and ingenuity at La Grande Maison.

In the 19^th century, repeater chimes were regulated primarily by an anchor-and-flywheel mechanism, which resulted in a characteristic buzz that can be heard underlying the chime of antique repeaters and some modern watches that still use the old system. Jaeger-LeCoultre patented a new silent strike governer in 1895 that uses friction and centripetal forces to regulate chiming. Today, this mechanism is used in the majority of chiming watches, including the Master Grande Tradition Gyrotourbillon Westminster Perpétuel.

The minute repeater of the Master Grande Tradition Gyrotourbillon Westminster Perpétuel also benefits from more recent innovations, such as the patented crystal gongs that first appeared in the Master Minute Repeater Antoine LeCoultre in 2005. These crystal gongs were welded to the dial crystal of the watch, capitalising on the superior sound transmission qualities of synthetic sapphire crystal to produce the loudest and clearest wristwatch chime ever created. Trebuchet hammers, articulated and sprung to deliver strong and quick strikes to the gongs, can be found in the Master Grande Tradition Gyrotourbillon Westminster Perpétuel, as they first appeared in the only other Westminster chime wristwatch of Jaeger-LeCoultre, the 2009 Hybris Mechanica Duomètre à Grande Sonnerie. Gongs with circular cross sections are the norm in minute repeater watches, but the square cross-section gongs seen in the Master Grande Tradition Gyrotourbillon Westminster Perpétuel are engineered to provide the greatest area of contact with the striking hammers, and have been a mainstay of Jaeger-LeCoultre chiming watches since 2006.

The Whirlwind of Precision

Of utmost importance in any watch movement is the regulating organ, the balance and hairspring assembly that allows a watch to measure time in precise beats. The tourbillon is a chronometric amplifier that can improve the timekeeping performance of a regulator by averaging out its positional errors. The in-house expertise of Jaeger-LeCoultre in tourbillons is unmatched, extending over a range of rotating escapements from the award-winning classic tourbillon calibre 978, the unbridged flying tourbillon, the various multi-axis Gyrotourbillon watches, the inclined-axis Sphérotoubillon and the groundbreaking flying tourbillon with flying balance in the Master Ultra Thin Minute Repeater Flying Tourbillon.

Along with this unparalleled variety of tourbillons comes an equally profound understanding of hairspring technology, which Jaeger-LeCoultre has developed with its own in-house tools to form the sophisticated spherical hairsprings used in some of its most evolved tourbillon watches.

The Master Grande Tradition Gyrotourbillon Westminster Perpétuel takes this exploration of precision to a new level with its constant-force mechanism. With the inclusion of the constant-force spring remontoir, the focus on precision is expanded far beyond the whirling dimensions of the tourbillon and its precision regulation. The Master Grande Tradition Gyrotourbillon Westminster Perpétuel constant-force mechanism highlights the precision of power delivery in one-minute cycles, the precision of time display in the jumping minutes hand and the precision of the repeater chime.

Master Grande Tradition Gyrotourbillon Westminster Perpétuel

Dimensions: 43 mm

Thickness: 14.08 mm

Calibre: 184 - Manual

Case: White gold

Water resistance: 3 bar

Functions: Hour/Minute, Jumping Date, Two-way perpetual calendar (Day/Date/Month/Year), Gyrotourbillon, Minute repeater with Westminster chime

Power reserve: 52 h

Dial: Blue guilloché enamel or Silver grained

Case Back: Open

Limitation: 18 pieces

Reference: Q52534E1, Q5253420

The Hybris Mechanica^™ Collection

A reference in the realm of grand complications

Inspired by a spirit of invention and a desire to constantly push back the boundaries of the watchmaking art, the Hybris Mechanica™ collection was unveiled in 2003 with the exceptional Atmos Mystérieuse clock and its constant force mechanism. Since this date, a succession of unquestionable masterpieces has ensued, such as the Master Gyrotourbillon 1, a grand complication watch with a multi-axis tourbillon, the Reverso Grande Complication à Triptyque, which brings together no fewer than 18 complications over three faces, the Hybris Mechanica à Grande Sonnerie with some 1,400 components – one of Jaeger-LeCoultre's most sophisticated watches – and the Master Ultra Thin Minute Repeater Flying Tourbillon, a prime example of multiple innovations within an extremely thin case.

Under the highly evocative name of Hybris Mechanica™, the collection now encompasses 13 unique pieces or very limited editions that conceal an impressive number of watch complications. Amongst other innovations, they give pride of place to the mechanical measurement of time, the mathematical approach to eternity, and the musical indication of the hours. The Manufacture's artisans hold a deep passion for these pieces, ever ready to take on the wildest technical and artistic challenges once more in their name.

The Hybris Artistica^™ Collection

A rare art

The sublime Hybris Artistica™ collection follows on from this compendium of grand complication watches. The two collections are not only united by the common name of Hybris; both constitute an incredibly successful showcase of remarkable watchmaking expertise, both in terms of mechanical content and aesthetics.

Revealed at the Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie in 2014, the first pieces in the Hybris Artistica™ collection are a bold expression of the winning combination of the Grande Maison's many talents in the form of its Rare Handcrafts “Métiers Rares”. True to its past of continuous invention, for the very first time Jaeger-LeCoultre combined ancestral techniques – such as guilloché work, enamelling, and engraving – with ingenious mechanical movements featuring particularly sophisticated complications. This is more than a mere combination; this is a fusion, an alchemy – an exceptional blend of design, mechanical ingenuity, and artistic talent. The collection's many jewels include a number of emblematic pieces, such as the Duomètre Sphérotourbillon, featuring the famous "Dual-Wing" concept, and the Master Grande Tradition Gyrotourbillon 3, with its richly decorated ruthenium dial and tantalum case. The Rendez-Vous Tourbillon showcases the endless dance of its flying tourbillon at 6 o'clock thanks to its diamond setting, while the Grande Reverso Tourbillon Squelette reveals a sculptural embroidery in the form of its entirely skeletonised mechanism.

These 12 exceptional pieces are now joined by two new, remarkable models, both in terms of their original designs and masterly mechanisms. Available for men and women, the Hybris Artistica Mystérieuse is destined to reveal the mystery of time in a sublime yet unexpected fashion within a breathtakingly beautiful exterior. These pure masterpieces have taken shape in the boundless imaginations of the Jaeger-LeCoultre master-watchmakers and artisans, passionately formed in their hands and by their fingers in an undying quest for perfection.