Jaeger-LeCouLtre celebrates 180 years of innovation with a
Transcription
Jaeger-LeCouLtre celebrates 180 years of innovation with a
By Michael Thompson Jaeger-LeCoultre celebrates 180 years of innovation with a collection that honors founder Antoine LeCoultre. This addition to the Master Grande Tradition collection, the Cylindrique à Quantième Perpétuel (see this month’s cover), is a tourbillon model with complete perpetual calendar functionality. 81 Jaeger-LeCoultre headquarters in Le Sentier he term ‘manufacture’ is one of those words continually overused by watchmaking companies today. Contrary to those who feel any horological assembly work done within four walls defines the word, it should actually refer only to firms that employ a vertical supply chain and make all major components within the confines of their facilities. As ill-used as the term is today, no Swiss watchmaking company actually considered themselves a ‘manufacture’ until 1866 when, it has been said, Antoine LeCoultre imported the idea from the United States and England, where numerous manufacturers, including several watchmaking companies, employed industrialized vertical integrated manufacturing. Until LeCoultre put this import to practice in its hometown of Le Sentier in Switzerland’s Vallee de Joux, Swiss watchmakers did their work within the établissage system of independent, mostly home-based watchmakers who sent their work on to assemblers, finishers and distributors primarily in Geneva. After a period of adjustment, LeCoultre and partner August Borgeaud’s new and pioneering ‘manufacture,’ then called Manufacture LeCoultre Borgeaud & Cie, succeeded in convincing the local naysayers that indeed a centralized workspace would be advantageous to both horological innovation and quality control. The company flourished. Making calibers Between 1860 and 1900, the company created more than 350 different calibers, half of them made with one or more complications. Among them were ninety-nine different repeater movements, 128 chronographs (including thirty-two split seconds models) and eight different thin calibers. In 1877 Borgeaud and Antoine LeCoultre retired, and LeCoultre’s three sons changed the company name to LeCoultre & Cie. Eleven years later, by 1888, the company was one of the region’s largest employers (at 480 workers—half of them at the Le Sentier location) and the single most powerful economic engine in the region. “The company was the Grande Maison in the Valley de Joux,” explains Stephane Belmont, Jaeger-LeCoultre international marketing and technical director. “We made the complications. Others specialized in the wheels and pinions, but we were first to create the whole movement and complications, and this is important for us.” The movements that emerged from this Grande Maison could be found inside every important maker’s watches across the globe. For example, a collector of the day might have purchased a Patek Philippe minute repeater split seconds pocket watch at retailer Tiffany & Co. bearing a movement made at LeCoultre in Le Sentier. To Belmont, Jaeger-LeCoultre’s 19th Century success story is too often overlooked in light of The art of watchmaking at the Jaeger-LeCoultre Manufacture. Lower left: Caliber 101, the smallest manual-wind movement, was developed in 1929 and continues to be placed into watches today. 83 the firm’s multitude of 20th century milestones like the debuts of the firm’s famed Reverso, its Atmos clocks, the Duoplan or the Memovox, among others. To address such oversights he and Jaeger-LeCoultre have during all of 2013 steered a new focus on those first six decades when the company’s pocket watch design and complicated movement innovation helped forge the company’s reputation as “the watchmaker’s watchmaker.” The Jubilee Jaeger-LeCoultre this past January debuted its Jubilee 180th anniversary collection to honor those early decades, which pre-dated and set the tone for the first meetings between Edmond Jaeger and the founder’s grandson Jacques-David LeCoultre just after the start of the 20th century. Officially called the Jubilée Hommage à Antoine LeCoultre collection, these watches are inspired by “180 years of enthusiasm, obstinacy and precision. In short, the creative force of Antoine LeCoultre,” according to Belmont. Consisting of three limited-edition watches, the Jubilee collection features a Master Grande Tradition model, an ultra-thin model and a new addition to the Hybris Mechanica collection. Each is made in platinum and all three feature the company’s founding year of “1833” on the dial, as well as finishing that echoes the caliber and case finishes Jaeger-LeCoultre artisans used on its 19th century pocket watches. Tourbillon perpetual The first model, the newest addition to the Master Grande Tradition, is the Cylindrique à Quantième Perpétuel (see this month’s cover), a tourbillon model with complete perpetual calendar functionality. On this watch, the tourbillon appears to be suspended in mid-air at the heart of the movement while the perpetual calendar provides a clear display of the day, date, month and year, and moon phases. The seconds are read via an indicator on the flying tourbillon. Equipped with the new Jaeger-LeCoultre 985 automatic movement, the watch is the first to combine a flying tourbillon with a cylindrical balance spring, thus guaranteeing a very high level of timekeeping performance. And, in tribute to the forward-thinking tech- RIGHT: Jaeger-LeCoultre Master Ultra Thin Jubilee in ultra-white platinum nical focus of Jaeger-LeCoultre’s founders, the watchmakers have made using the perpetual calendar far simpler than many currently available. Only one corrector regulates all the information. Once set, this Master Grande Tradition Tourbillon Cylindrique à Quantième Perpétuel Jubilee will not need any adjustment until 2100. The perpetual calendar mechanism takes into account the length of each month and even considers February 29th every leap year. Visible from the back, the 22-karat pink gold rotor reveals a representation of the gold medal brought back by Jaeger-LeCoultre from the Universal Exhibition of Paris in 1889. As a limited edition Jubilee model, 180 examples will be made, price upon request. Ultra-thin Inspired by a 1907 Jaeger-LeCoultre pocket watch that remains the thinnest manually wound mechanical pocket watch in the world, this “knife-shaped” case model measures a mere 4.05mm thick. It is the flattest manually wound mechanical wristwatch in existence. At the heart of the 39 mm platinum-cased Jaeger-LeCoultre Master Ultra Thin Jubilee beats the manual wound mechanical movement Jaeger-LeCoultre 849, itself a thin 1.85 mm from top to back. The Ultra-thin watch category is important at Jaeger-LeCoultre headquarters in Le Sentier. Thin calibers are in fact at the very origin of the joining of the two names Jaeger and LeCoultre. Antoine LeCoultre’s invention of the Millionometer, a device capable of measure components to a micron as they were being made, led to his development of the very thin calibers this new model celebrates today. Watchmaker to the French Navy Edmond Jaeger set out to create only simple or complicated thin calibers at the turn of the 20th century and challenged the Swiss to make them even thinner. LeCoultre took this challenge, met with Jaeger, and by 1907 created the Caliber 145 upon which this new model is based. Making thin and other inventive calibers for Cartier and Patek Philippe, among many oth- Grande Reverso Ultra Thin Duoface ers, Jaeger and LeCoultre expanded operations dramatically soon after the Caliber 145. In 1917 they officially merged their watchmaking and aircraft instrument-making operations, though the company didn’t create the Jaeger-LeCoultre brand name until 1937. As on the tourbillon, you’ll find the “1833” on the dial of this Master Ultra Thin Jubilee, but in addition, the watch’s hour markers are placed within the traditional minute circle and the grained silver-toned finish just as they were in many historical pocket watches by Jaeger-LeCoultre. The company will make 880 editions of the watch, each priced at $17,800. “Between 1860 and 1900, LeCoultre created more than 350 different calibers, half of them made with one or more complications.” The Gyrotourbillon Gyrotourbillon 3 Jubilee Joining Jaeger-LeCoultre’s elite Hybris Mechanica family, this Master Grande Tradition Gyrotourbillon 3 Jubilee (see our August issue starting on page 94 for more details about this model) celebrates the rich technical knowhow of the company’s watchmakers at Le Sentier. The watch is the latest to feature the Jaeger-LeCoultre gyrotourbillon, a spectacular three-dimensional, two-axis escapement. In addition and as noted in our earlier story on this watch, the Gyrotourbillon 3 Jubilee’s 43.5 mm platinum-cased design, finishing and case structure owes much specifically to the legacy of Jaeger-LeCoultre’s 19th century pocket watches. For example, considering many Jaeger-LeCoultre pocket watches were operated via single-pusher chronographs, the chronograph on this extraordinary model is activated via the single pusher at 2 o’clock. What’s more, the mainplate has been decorated with a finish that requires meticulous manual hammering, echoing the same finish found on an 1898 pocket watch made by Jacques-David LeCoultre. The watch’s functions combine an unusual instantaneous digital chronograph minutes indicator, a flying spherical tourbillon escapement with dual-axis, dual-speed rotation, two barrels and 592 components, making for a piece worthy of entrance into the Jaeger-LeCoultre Hybris Mechanica family (see next page for a look at all the Hybris Mechanica models). The Master Grande Tradition Gyrotourbillon 3 Jubilee is to be made in a limited edition of seventyfive platinum models. 85 Celebrating 180 Years 1833 Founding of the Manufacture by Antoine LeCoultre 1937 Official birth of the Jaeger-LeCoultre brand 1994 Reverso Duo debuts 1844 Invention of the Millionometer 1938 Compass miniature camera 1847 Invention of the pivoting winding mechanism 1946 Jaeger-LeCoultre tourbillon Calibre 170 1997 A new building opens 1851 Gold medal at the World Fair in London 1946 First automatic Jaeger-LeCoultre watch 2002 Master Compressor Memovox debuts 1858 Elie LeCoultre helps his father Antoine 1950 Birth of the Memovox 2003 Reverso Platinum Number Two 1866 LeCoultre becomes the first Manufacture in the Vallée de Joux 1953 Jaeger-LeCoultre Calibre 803, a thin 1.64 mm 1870 First complicated calibers 1874 A new building opens 1880 Jaeger is founded in Paris 1890 The Manufacture produces 156 calibers 1890 The first Grande Complication models 1953 Futurematic debuts 1956 First automatic wristwatch with an alarm 1958 Geophysic Chronometer debuts 1959 Memovox Deep Sea. First diver’s watch equipped with an alarm 1997 Reverso Duetto debuts 2000 Jaeger-LeCoultre joins the Richemont Group 2003 Atmos Mystérieuse debuts 2004 Gyrotourbillon I debuts 2005 Master Minute Repeater Antoine LeCoultre 2006 Reverso grande complication à triptyque 2007 Duomètre debuts 2007 Master Compressor Extreme Lab debuts 1965 Memovox Polaris debuts 2007 Opening of the Heritage Gallery 1900 Jacques-David LeCoultre is in charge of production 1967 Participation in the Beta 21 movement 1903 Jacques-David LeCoultre meets Edmond Jaeger 1976 Jaeger-LeCoultre automatic, thin, high frequency Calibre 900 2008 Four pink gold limited series marking the 175th anniversary of the Manufacture 1907 Jaeger-LeCoultre Calibre 145, the world’s thinnest movement 1912 Extension of the Manufacture 1925 Invention of the Duoplan watch 1928 Invention of the Atmos clock 1929 Jaeger-LeCoultre Calibre 101, the world’s thinnest movement 1930 Chronoflight debuts 1931 Eight-day twin-barrel wristwatch 1931 Birth of the Reverso 1932 “Baguette” table clock 1982 Jaeger-LeCoultre Calibre 601, the world’s thinnest quartz movement 2008 Reverso Gyrotourbillon 2 debuts 2009 New 9,000-square-meter building 2009 Duomètre à Grande Sonnerie debuts 1983 Jaeger-LeCoultre Calibre 889 2010 Master Grande Tradition Grande Complication 1987 Jaeger-LeCoultre mechaquartz Calibre 630 2011 Reverso Répétition Minutes à Rideau 1989 Grand Réveil debuts 2012 Duomètre Sphérotourbillon debuts 1990 Géographique debuts 1991 Reverso 60ème debuts 1992 Master Control 1000 Hours 2013 Jaeger-LeCoultre celebrates its 180th anniversary
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