Jaeger-LeCoultre Debuts Three Ultra-Limited High-Horology
Jaeger-LeCoultre has unveiled three exclusive timepieces showcasing celestial mechanics, chiming complexity, and high jewelry.
Jaeger-LeCoultre has introduced three ultra-limited high-horology watches. The pieces demonstrate the brand's expertise in celestial mechanics, chiming complications, and gem setting.
Master Hybris Artistica Calibre 945
The Master Hybris Artistica Calibre 945 is limited to five pieces. It features a 45mm 18K white gold case and a domed dial crafted using a 16th-century grisaille enamel technique. This method uses Blanc de Limoges white enamel on a midnight-blue background to create a three-dimensional night sky depicting the Vallée de Joux.
The watch tracks real-time constellation positions with a Northern Hemisphere sky chart. A 73-component flying Cosmotourbillon orbits the dial counter-clockwise every sidereal day, which is 23 hours, 56 minutes and 4 seconds. An integrated minute repeater uses patented Cathedral crystal gongs and Trébuchet hammers to chime.
Duometre Grande Sonnerie
The Duometre Grande Complication à Grande Sonnerie is a single-piece edition. It is powered by an updated Calibre 182 movement comprising 1,300 components and 15 complications. The 45mm case is made from 18K pink gold and titanium.
It houses a Westminster-style Grande and Petite Sonnerie mechanism. This plays the four-note melody of Big Ben using four gongs and four hammers. The movement uses a dual-barrel Duometre system to separate timekeeping power from the chiming function.
Other features include a flying tourbillon and a retrograde perpetual calendar that adjusts automatically for leap years until 2100. Acoustic enhancements come from elongated metallic glass gongs and a titanium inner case. An openworked blue-grey lacquered dial reveals the strike sequence governors.
101 Secrets High-Jewelry Edition
The 101 Secrets is a high-jewelry secret watch limited to three pieces. Its 18K pink gold double-rivière bracelet is set with 124 pink sapphires. The gems are graduated in ten sizes and seven shades from vivid cyclamen to pale blush, bordered by a band of grain-set white diamonds.
Gem-setting required 163 hours of work in the brand's Métiers Rares atelier. The bracelet conceals a white mother-of-pearl dial beneath its links. A hidden button at 6 o'clock activates the mechanism, causing the watch to open like a book.
At its heart is the hand-wound Calibre 101 movement. Originally invented in 1929, it consists of 98 parts and weighs just one gram. Jaeger-LeCoultre states this remains the world's smallest rectangular mechanical movement.
