Invention through movement
As watchmaking’s most inventive manufacturer, Jaeger-LeCoultre owed it to itself to devote a temporary exhibition in its Heritage Gallery to the theme of invention. The scenography blends classical and high-tech elements to immerse visitors into the very heart of the process of invention. It retraces the main steps that led to the creation of four calibres presented in 2010. From the first idea to the finished watch, thousands of hours of research are required to find new technical and aesthetic solutions placed in the service of precision, complications, useful functions, and resistance. Each creation is a magnificent human adventure.
The spirit of invention is second nature to Jaeger-LeCoultre. Born in 1833 from the invention of a pinion-cutting machine, the Manufacture with its 40 professions and 20 cutting-edge technologies has created over 1000 different calibres, of which more than 500 are equipped with complications, and has filed 390 patents. Since the year 2000, the watchmakers, engineers and artisans have filed 80 patents and created 68 calibres, introducing a string of world firsts including the spherical tourbillon spinning on two axes; the first wristwatch with three dials
driven by a single movement; the first lubricant-free wristwatch; the first Grande Sonnerie mechanism sounding the complete Westminster chime; and the world’s most complicated wristwatch.
Inaugurated in March 2010, the new temporary exhibition in the Jaeger-LeCoultre Heritage Gallery invites visitors to plunge into the very heart of the inventive process. How is a new project born? Upon what heritage do the engineers build in devising new technical solutions? What needs do the inventions meet? The exhibition sets the stage for the four main calibres presented by the Manufacture in 2010 and tells the story of their development, emphasizing their contributions to the fields of precision, useful functions, resistance and Grandes Complications.
The first exhibition area is devoted to the Master Compressor Extreme LAB 2 Tribute to Geophysic, a watch with a Jaeger-LeCoultre Calibre 780 that has been equipped with complications specifically intended for extreme conditions. The exhibition also highlights the rich heritage of the Manufacture in the field of chronographs: the first chronograph made using partially mechanised processes (1870); the first “flyback” type system (1877); a patent for secure instant minute counters (1892); ultra-thin calibres (1908); a retrograde counter (1995); and the revolutionary Dual-Wing concept (2007).
Just opposite, serving as a “black box” embodying the creative process, a 3D display provides animated technical plans presenting the main inventions of Calibre 780, a mechanism that called for 22,000 hours of development. Visitors can thus learn for example how the engineers
optimised the readability of the chronograph by creating a digital counter with secure jumping discs; how the function selection was entirely redesigned using a crown housing a pushpiece; how the “radial” power-reserve indicator circles the dial circumference; and how the 712 parts of this watch make it the world’s most accomplished and sophisticated sports chronograph.
At the end of this technical “full-immersion” experience, visitors can admire the watch itself, in its version featuring a case in TiVan (a titanium and vanadium alloy), a model identical to the one worn by mountaineer Stéphane Schaffter during the ascension of the virgin Himalayan peak newly christened Mount Antoine LeCoultre, on October 22nd 2009.
The second exhibition area shows that major inventions endure for decades. Presented at the SIHH 2010, the Master Memovox International contains Jaeger-LeCoultre Calibre 956, the fifthgeneration movement since Jaeger-LeCoultre Calibre 815 (1956) – the first movement ever to combine an alarm with automatic movement. This technical concept was so advanced that it has remained unchanged ever since. Nonetheless, each new generation has been endowed with the latest breakthroughs in terms of precision and reliability: an oscillating weight with a rotor mounted on ball bearings; a high-frequency escapement; a variable-inertia balance, etc. A legendary watch from the post-war boom period, the Memovox remains the ultimate expression of useful functions.
The third section of the exhibition presents the Master Grande Tradition Grande Complication, a model in direct line with the history of ultra-complicated watches created by the Manufacture since the 19th century. The “sound system” of its minute repeater mechanism represents the culmination of several years of acoustic research and features articulated hammers striking square-section “cathedral” gong-rings made from a secret alloy and generating a sound that is amplified by the sapphire crystal protecting the watch dial.To regulate the mechanism and compensate for the effects of gravity, a flying tourbillon spins on its axis once a minute. In turn driving the watch dial itself, the tourbillon gravitates around the centre of the watch at the same rotation speed as that of the earth in relation to the stars, meaning 23 hours, 56 minutes and 4 seconds – thus enabling it to indicate sidereal time (the reference for astronomers). Simultaneously, a small sun circles the dial in 24 hours, indicating civil or standard time. The small discrepancy daily created by the superimposition of these two rhythms enables the watch to display both civil and zodiac calendars. Equipped with Jaeger-LeCoultre Calibre 945, this watch harks back to the very historical sources of time measurement history: its small gear trains reproduce the movements of the earth in relation to the sun and stars, and the association of the earth’s rotation and its gravitation around the sun serves to provide the calendar indications.
The fourth area focuses on precision by presenting Jaeger-LeCoultre Calibre 381, created for the Duomètre Quantième Lunaire. Writing a new chapter in the history of timekeeping, its unique technical concept combines two mechanisms within a single movement. Two gear trains each equipped with its own barrel are both governed by a single regulating organ. Exclusively dedicated to precision, the first gear train exchanges energy with the balance and does not drive any hands or other functions. The second handles all the watch functions, including the large moon display and the jumping seconds, but does not exchange any energy with the balance.
The crown is equipped with a complex system serving to set the time to the nearest sixth of a second using a stop seconds device that does not stop the balance! Each in its own field, the four models featured in this exhibition offer new technical solutions that literally reinvent the concepts of precision, useful functions and user-friendliness, thereby contributing to the advancement of the grand Swiss tradition of complicated watches.
Ceci est l’extrait d’un article publié sur “Dernières news – HH Magazine – Fondation de la Haute Horlogerie”
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