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

In 2013, Jaeger-LeCoultre first introduced the Master Grande Tradition Gyrotourbillon 3 to mark the Maison’s 180th anniversary. Combining a third-generation interpretation of the Gyrotourbillon with an intriguing and highly unusual instantaneous digital display chronograph, it represents mechanical sophistication of the highest order.

But still, Jaeger-LeCoultre wanted to do more. And so, this new version of Gyrotourbillon 3 harnesses the exceptional skills of the Manufacture’s Rare Handcrafts™ (Métiers Rares®) artisans to elevate the rare and precious timepiece to a new level. With various elements of the dial showcasing the traditional Rare Handcrafts™ of hand-guillochage, engraving and grand feu enamel, this new model introduces the rarely seen craft of meteorite inlay.

On the dial side, the intriguing geometric markings of the silvery-grey meteorite are complemented by the subtle glitter of deep blue aventurine and the glow of pure white grand feu enamel. This harmonious interplay of materials, colour and surface pattern is complemented by the warmth and richness of the pink gold case and dial details.

Found in Namibia, the Gibeon meteorite chosen for this watch is an iron-nickel alloy with an octahedrite crystal structure, formed by the cooling of the asteroid fragment in outer space over the course of billions of years before it crashed to earth in prehistoric times. The abstract geometric patterns of the intersecting crystal structures shimmer gently when the material catches the light, their irregular arrangement making every slice of meteorite subtly different from all others.

In addition to the meteorite inlaid on the German silver bridges, a disc of meteorite sits at the centre of the time display dial, surrounded by a ring of aventurine with applied indexes. On the chronograph display, an aventurine disc is encircled by a ring of white grand feu enamel, marked with elapsed seconds. The Day/Night display comprises a 24-hour plate on which two gold semi-circles are applied, one each for day and night. The white day section is decorated with hand-guilloché, hand-engraved sunrays and an applied polished pink gold sun; the night section features applied polished pink gold crescent moon and stars, set on a rich blue background.

Asymmetrical yet perfectly balanced, these three overlapping dials are layered, adding visual depth to the watch face – and, despite tempting glimpses of the movement, drawing the eye irresistibly to the tourbillon as it spins in space, with no immediately visible means of support.

It is on the back of the movement that the meteorite truly takes centre stage. A lively yet subtle mixture of colour and texture – blued screws, ruby jewels, the shiny aspect of the hand-chamfered and hand-polished jewel countersinks, bridges and plates, and the matt finish of the brushed borders of the German silver plates – offsets the abstract geometric patterns of the meteorite, which adorns all of the plates and bridges.

A skill mastered by very few craftsmen in the world, meteorite inlay requires a rare degree of precision and dexterity. First, the artisan must hollow out the surface of the German silver plate or bridge, to a depth that exactly matches the thickness of the meteorite fragment, leaving only a fine fillet of German silver at the borders. Once the new surface has been polished, the meteorite must be laid so that its edges fit seamlessly within the complex, curving borders and its surface lies exactly flush with them, to form a completely flat and unified plane. It is work of the utmost refinement and precision, measured in fractions of a millimetre.

Such exacting work complements the remarkable precision of the Gyrotourbillon mechanism. Exceedingly rare and complex, this multi-axis tourbillon comprises two cages, set at two different angles, turning opposite directions, at different speeds, with a blued spherical balance spring beating like a heart in their centre. In the absence of a tourbillon bridge, the cantilevered all-aluminium cages of Gyrotourbillon 3 appear to be suspended in space.

Hand-wound movement, calibre 176, incorporates a fully integrated chronograph, which displays the seconds on a traditional round dial and elapsed minutes on an instantaneously jumping digital counter.

Conceived and crafted for true connoisseurs of art and mechanics, the new Master Grande Tradition Gyrotourbillon 3 ‘Meteorite’ represents the highest expression of Jaeger-LeCoultre’s codes.

Technical characteristics:

Dimensions: 43.5 mm

Thickness: 15.8 mm

Calibre: manual mechanical movement, Jaeger-LeCoultre Caliber 176

Functions: digital instant monopusher chronograph, hours/minutes, day/night indicator, gyrotourbillon

Power reserve: 45 hours

Case: pink gold

Dial: aventurine, white enamel, meteorite, hand-guilloché day/night indicator

Caseback: open

Water resistance: 50 m

Reference: Q5032441

Limited to 8 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