Jaeger-LeCoultre - Master Ultra Thin Tourbillon

Jaeger-LeCoultre - Master Ultra Thin Tourbillon


At the SIHH 2012, the Manufacture Jaeger-LeCoultre presents three new timepieces in its Master Control line, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary. It was indeed in 1992 that the Grande Maison in the Vallée de Joux introduced this classically inspired line named after a merciless set of tests, the 1000 Hours Control, introduced that same year in order to guarantee the reliability, the sturdiness and the precision of its timepieces, even in the most extreme conditions.

 

  Since 1833, watchmaking inventiveness has had a firm home base in the Vallée de Joux. That was the year the brilliant young Antoine Lecoultre founded his own establishment in Le Sentier, dedicated to the production of horological components. He had just developed a revolutionary machine designed to cut pinions, a key element of watch mechanisms. It represented a decisive breakthrough that paved the way for movement standardisation and series production. This first venture off the beaten track set an invaluable precedent, and remains an enduring source of inspiration for the founders’ successors. Antoine LeCoultre did not take the success with which his first efforts were rewarded as an encouragement to rest on his laurels – quite the contrary. He extended production to encompass other timepiece components and constantly sought out new means of enhancing production quality. Barely ten years went by before he developed the millionometer, the first instrument capable of making micron-accurate measurements corresponding to one millionth of a metre. The invention was to have a considerable impact in that, as well as ensuring greatly improved precision, it also served to incorporate within pocket-watches certain horological complications that previous generations could only dream of. The new accomplishments generated great enthusiasm and the Vallée de Joux, the cradle of Fine Watchmaking, soon earned the nickname of the “Valley of Complications” – a title that has remained unchallenged ever since.

The pink gold case frames a dial on which the observer’s gaze is inexorably drawn towards the tourbillon at 6 o’clock. This imposing and majestic device testifies to the exceptional precision of the Master Ultra Thin Tourbillon, as well as to the inventive strength of the Manufacture that propelled the tourbillon, invented in the latter years of the 18th century, firmly into the 21st century. In 2004, the Gyrotourbillon caused a sensation by introducing the world’s first spherical tourbillon. Four years later, the Grande Maison in the Vallée de Joux unveiled the Reverso Gyrotourbillon, the first three-dimensional tourbillon to feature a cylindrical balance-spring. Barely twelve months later, Jaeger-LeCoultre presented the Master Grande Tradition Grande Complication combining a flying tourbillon and celestial indications in the form of a sidereal zodiac calendar. This extraordinary range of inventions is of course anything but coincidental.

Six years ago, the Master Tourbillon returned to the roots of the tourbillon, of which the primary function consists in optimising the precision and the reliability of a timepiece by compensating for the detrimental effects of gravity on the regulating organ. Its tourbillon is distinguished by its generous dimensions and its high frequency of 28,800 vibrations per hour, which remains a rarity for a tourbillon movement. It also features a diaphanously light titanium carriage weighing a mere 0.33 grams and representing an undeniable asset in reducing the energy required by a barrel that is wound by a rotor mounted on ceramic ball bearings. This high-precision instrument won first prize in the Chronométrie 2009 international timing competition.

In 2012, the Master Ultra Thin Tourbillon featuring this same tourbillon is an anthem of praise to this prestigious device. In this stupendously slender execution, it is held by a filigree-worked bridge providing an exquisite view of its perfectly proportioned orbit. Set against an eggshell-white dial, the applied pink gold hour-markers retain the modesty required to avoid distracting the gaze from the true focus of attention. The gold hour and minute hands accompany the small seconds at 6 o’clock which, interdependent with the rotations of the tourbillon, performs a complete turn once a minute. The result of decades of patient research and development appears in a state of perfection and simplicity such that no one admiring it could possibly imagine the efforts involved in making it. This is indeed the hallmark of all authentic masterpieces. In homage to this artistic and technological accomplishment, the Manufacture Jaeger-LeCoultre will offer the Master Ultra Thin Tourbillon exclusively with a pink gold case measuring 40 mm in diameter and measuring an incredible thin 11.3 millimeters.

Throughout its rich history, Jaeger-LeCoultre’s inventiveness has been attested by the filing of almost 400 patents. More eloquently than any other, this statistic illustrates the tirelessly innovative momentum of the Manufacture, although it only takes on its true significance when one recalls that 80 of them have been awarded for decisive breakthroughs made since the dawn of the third millennium. For the Grande Maison in the Vallée de Joux, the acceleration of history is no mere myth.

For twenty years, the strict demands of the 1000 Hours Control have been conducting rigorous test procedures on all Master Control models, which embody the latest developments stemming from the research undertaken in the Manufacture’s laboratories. For two decades, the performances and the reliability of the timepieces in the Master Control line have been enthusiastically welcomed by the public and by horological experts who salute their avant-garde technology. In 2012, three new timepieces celebrate a watch line that has truly come of age. Each expresses a particular aspect of the vast range of expertise cultivated within the Manufacture Jaeger-LeCoultre: prodigious horological classicism conveyed through a minimalist expression radiating breathtaking beauty; a contemporary expression of the power reserve in an ultra-thin case; and a tourbillon featuring a slenderness that is an outstanding feat in its own right.

---------------------------------------------------------------
www.jaeger-lecoultre.com