STICKING TO SUCCESS
Jaeger-lecoultre revisits its undisputed style manifesto this year.
According to Stephane Belmont, Jaeger Lecoultre’s marketing and creation executive director, the brand likes to stick to its successes. “We produce classic watches that offer quality finishing, complications and watchmaking content in which mechanical elements influence the design,” he says.
The proof of this lies in this year’s Geophysic Tourbillon Universal Time, a limited edition of 100 pieces in platinum that debuts a flying tourbillon together with a worldtimer, a first in the history of high horology. Beyond the bragging rights of this timepiece being the first coupling of a flying tourbillon and worldtimer, this horological tryst also features the proprietary Gyrolab balance, which is equips the Geophysic collection.
It took the research and development team at Jaeger-Lecoultre eight years to develop the non-circular shape of the Gyrolab.
This highly efficient Gyrolab – reduces friction and heightens efficiency – augments the automatic Calibre 948 which is housed within this timepiece’s 43.5mm case. The movement drives the continents across the central disc at one rotation every 24 hours in tandem with the flying tourbillon’s pace. Through the sapphire caseback, the oscillating weight in 22-carat solid monobloc pink gold replenished energy to the 48-hour power reserve. All of these technical achievements hark back to the first Geophysic watch by Jaeger-lecoultre in 1958 to commemorate the International Geophysic Year. On this year’s opus, the idea is a continuation of the ideal of scientific advancement. “The fun part happens at the start,” Belmont says. “You get to throw your idea out without knowing if it is feasible. Then it becomes a challenge to the designers and engineers to uncover the solutions. We have achieved everything that we can only because of time and teamwork. It takes full integration to achieve this level of result.” www. jaeger- lecoultre.com ≠
Geophysic Tourbillon Universal Time debuts a flying tourbillon with a worldtimer, a first in the history of high horology.