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PILLARS OFFor nearly two centuries, the creativity of Jaeger-LeCoultre has been a wellspring nourishing the art of watchmaking at its highest level. But it’s in its own history of iconic timepieces that those waters flow in their purest form By jack forster

I t’s impossible to imagine either watchmaking’s past, or its modern landscape, without Jaeger-LeCoultre. Founded in 1833 by Antoine LeCoultre, whose father, Jacques-David, had already made a name for himself in Switzerland’s Vallée de Joux as a master craftsman in metalworking,

Jaeger-LeCoultre has, from its very beginnings, partaken of the perfectionism, restless inventiveness and ingenuity, and above all, the capacity to combine unsurpassed technical wizardry with faultless excellence of taste that were all characteristic of its founder.

The astonishing diversity and depth of Jaeger-LeCoultre’s abilities in horology is difficult, at first, to grasp, precisely because of that diversity; the history of the manufacture’s accomplishments reads like a veritable encyclopedia of watchmaking’s most essential techniques and most sophisticated forms. Far from being a follower of the vagaries of horological fashion, Jaeger-LeCoultre, through its combination of technical achievement and consistently inspired design, has been instrumental in actually creating many of the classic genres of haute horlogerie which today still define the essential forms of high watchmaking.

It’s a testimony to Jaeger-LeCoultre’s mastery of the complete vocabulary of watchmaking that it has provided movements and lent its technical expertise to some of horology’s most prestigious houses. Such classic movements as the extra-flat manual-wound caliber 849, and the elegantly proportioned automatic caliber 889 have been employed by discerning manufacturers in some of the world’s best-known, most coveted, and most exclusive timepieces. But this leadership is much more than just a contemporary phenomenon. The deep well of skill that is represented by the “Grande Maison”, as the manufacture has been called since 1888 (a name earned through its recognition that year as the most important manufacturing center in the canton of Vaud) has nourished Swiss watchmaking for over a century.

This expertise reaches back to its founders’ obsession with both beauty and precision; one remarkable milestone in the Grande Maison’s history was the development, by Antoine LeCoultre, of the

measuring device known as the millionometer, which was the first such device capable of measuring the micron. It’s hardly overstating the case to point to the year of its invention — 1844 — as the year in which modern high-precision watchmaking was also born; the micron tolerances now essential in watchmaking would have been impossible without the instruments necessary to measure them. It is the establishment of a new benchmark that makes new achievements possible, and this, one of the most indispensable benchmarks in the history of horology, was achieved by Jaeger-LeCoultre.

No artist achieves the highest expression of the most complex aspects of his or her art without a complete mastery of the fundamentals. Just as an absolute fluency with technique is a prerequisite for a master pianist’s ability to move an audience of hundreds with seemingly effortless command, so in watchmaking the vision of an artist must be seamlessly fused to the discipline of a

scientist. It’s not surprising then, given Jaeger-LeCoultre’s technical prowess, that even before the 20th century, it had a full range of movements which represented the complete repertoire of horology. Minute repeaters, chronographs, perpetual calendars, precision chronometers, grande-sonnerie timepieces and high-jewelry watches were all made by Jaeger-LeCoultre. By the close of the 19th century, the manufacture had created an astonishing diversity of movements. Over 400 calibers were made in the years 1833 to 1900, and of these 128 were chronographs of various types, 99 were repeaters, and several, including a remarkable grande-complication hunter-cased pocket watch created in 1892, were highly complicated unique pieces. But perhaps one of the most significant complications created by Jaeger-LeCoultre was the result of a meeting that took place in 1903, and was to give the Grande Maison the name by which it is known today.

THE GRANDE MAISON

JAEGER-LECOULTRE:

JAEGER-LECOULTRE HAS BEEN INSTRUMENTAL IN CREATING MANY OF THE CLASSIC GENRES OF

HAUTE HORLOGERIE WHICH TODAY STILL DEFINE THE ESSENTIAL FORMS OF HIGH WATCHMAKING

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F or much of its existence in the 19th century, the firm was known simply by the name of its founder and his sons, as LeCoultre & Cie. (Thereafter, for a period, the firm

was known as Manufacture LeCoultre, Borgeaud & Cie due to a restructuring of the firm as a limited company; one of the largest shareholders was Auguste Borgeaud, whose name was associated with the firm from 1859 to 1877.) The firm’s name, as we now know it, came about as the result of a collaboration between one of Antoine LeCoultre’s grandsons, Jacques-David LeCoultre (1875–1948) and another prominent name in the history of horology — the noted French watchmaker, Edmond Jaeger.

Edmond Jaeger’s talents found many avenues of expression. Though he’s perhaps best known for the collaboration, which was to result in the linking of his name to that of the LeCoultre family, he was a luminary of the horological world in other respects as well. His name is also connected inextricably with that of Cartier, whose contracts with Jaeger resulted in such iconic watches as the Tank and the Santos. In 1903, Jaeger, who had initially made his reputation as a manufacturer of marine chronometers (and who throughout his career

also specialized in the invention and production of instruments for the automotive and aviation industries, and whose clients — and hence LeCoultre’s — would include Bugatti, Bentley, Rover, and Cadillac) approached Jacques-David LeCoultre with a proposal: could the three generations of unsurpassed technical expertise of the manufacture meet the challenge of making the extremely thin watches then in vogue?

The extra-flat watch is not a complication per se, but its creation challenges the ingenuity of watchmakers, in its own way, as much as the creation of a repeater or perpetual calendar. High-precision performance and physical robustness are much more easily achieved with relatively thick timepieces. By the 20th century, the demand for extra-flat watches was extremely strong, leading to the creation of some of the flattest movements ever made, which even today remain difficult to surpass.

Extra-flat watches are generally much more difficult to manufacture and adjust than their thicker cousins. Every component

— wheels, bridges and plates, mainspring barrel, and the escapement — is reduced to a bare minimum, and such factors as the extremely

tight clearances, as well as the challenge of making the movement rigid enough to not flex when strapped to the wrist (in the case of a wristwatch) require unusual care and skill on the part of both movement designer and watchmaker. It’s no surprise, then, that some of the best-known, most reliable, and most elegant extra-flat movements have historically come from Jaeger-LeCoultre, which, in the creation of such movements and watches, is in a class by itself.

The demonstration of Jaeger and LeCoultre’s mastery of this horological form was to come quickly. In 1907, a watch appeared which even today remains unsurpassed. It’s an open–faced pocket watch of great elegance in design, with a triangular bow and a dial decorated with an inner hour track of thin Roman numerals, and an outer minutes track with each minute interval further separated into five divisions. This detail, easy to overlook, is a quiet but firm statement of purpose by the manufacture, that in this groundbreaking timepiece, precision and elegance go hand in hand.

Inside is the LeCoultre caliber 145. This manual-wound movement is a breathtaking act of horological minimalism. The entire movement is only 1.38mm thick — a world record at the time, and one which remains, to this day, unbroken for its category. The movement remained in limited series production for over 50 years. And complicated watches, as well, were produced that were of remarkable flatness — in 1920, LeCoultre produced the caliber 18 SMV, a minute-repeater pocket watch that was only 3.2mm thick.

The heir, both technically and aesthetically, to these landmark watches, is today’s Jaeger-LeCoultre Master Ultra Thin. The Master Ultra Thin houses the JLC cal. 849, which debuted in 1975 as the cal. 839. The two movements are both extremely thin — 1.85mm, and between the two there are only minor differences (the 849, for instance, adding a jewel to the 839’s 18 rubies to bring the total to 19). The Master Ultra Thin is a true heir to the “knife” pocket watches

that were the first fruits of the collaboration between Edmond Jaeger and Jacques-David LeCoultre — the cal. 849 is an act of horological extremism as remarkable for the purity and simplicity of its execution as it is for its engineering. The movement is a catalog of the engineering approaches necessary to reduce a watch movement to the absolutely essential, but it is also incredibly ingenious in its various solutions to doing so. The mainspring barrel, for instance, is held in place only by the barrel bridge, eliminating the lower pivot in the mainplate. This presents a significant problem, however, in that the mainspring barrel is where the torque and lateral loads in a watch movement are at their highest, and as the barrel is supported on only one side in such “floating-barrel” designs, problems with alignment as well as excessive wear may result. Jaeger-LeCoultre solves both problems at once through the use of a very large-diameter central bearing which both provides a very rigid mount for the mainspring barrel, and distributes the mechanical load over a larger surface area for reduced friction and wear.

And it is the fact that all this technical wizardry is carried off with such effortless savoir-faire that gives the Master Ultra Thin its enduring appeal. The Master Ultra Thin is not merely an extraordinary example of one of watchmaking’s most important idioms — it is an expression of an entire philosophy; one in which what at first appears to be an understatement is actually a very special kind of clarity, and the achievement of an enviable elegance. There is perhaps no other watch that so beautifully captures the spirit evoked by the union of the names Jaeger and LeCoultre.

SOME OF THE BEST-KNOWN, MOST RELIABLE, AND MOST ELEGANT ExTRA-FLAT

MOvEMENTS HAvE HISTORICALLY COME FROM JAEGER-LECOULTRE

[left] this historical pocket watch made by

lecoultre & cie in 1907 remains unsurpassed

to this day[right] discreet and

elegant, the jaeger-lecoultre mastergrande ultra thin

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JAEGER, LECOULTRE, ANDTHE ART OF THE ExTRA-THIN WATCH

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T he Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso, like the Master Ultra Thin and the extra-flat watches that preceded it, is the result of a unique intersection of individuals and history. In the

1930s, the wristwatch had increasingly supplanted the pocket watch, and, having proved its practicality on the wrists of soldiers, seamen, and aviators during the First World War, it was natural that it would find its way into environments less potentially lethal to the wearer but no less dangerous to the timepiece. One such environment was the sporting world, and it was on the rough ground of the polo field that the Reverso was born.

The story begins in British colonial India, which by 1930 boasted an astonishing 175 polo clubs. In that year, a Swiss businessman named César de Trey, who had begun marketing Jaeger-LeCoultre timepieces internationally, was visiting India, and in a polo club was approached by a British army officer — his name sadly lost to history — who ruefully showed de Trey the broken glass of his wristwatch.

De Trey, asked by the officer to create a watch immune to such accidents, returned to Switzerland and enlisted the aid of Jacques-David LeCoultre, and the French engineer René-Alfred Chauvot. The talents of all three men were turned to the problem of creating a watch that was not only more physically robust, but that would also allow a gentleman of high society to cut a suitably elegant figure.

the Mughal Empire (1526–1858) that the Reverso was first decorated on the back of the case with elegant miniature enamel paintings. Such decorative techniques are a vital part of the Swiss horological tradition — so much so that the decoration of watch cases with enamel miniature paintings is known as the “Geneva technique” — and this combination of Indian motifs and Swiss technique produced timepieces that were nothing less than wearable works of art.

And in subsequent decades, the marriage of the Reverso case to the technique of decorative enameling has flourished. From reproductions of Old Master paintings to the famous recent series of Reversos based on the work of the artist Alphonse Mucha, to commissioned portraits, the Reverso’s ability to display to the full the unrestricted talents of the tiny group of artists capable of executing such work is unmatched by any other modern timepiece’s case design.

The caseback of the Reverso is also a blank slate for the display of the engraver’s art, and both abstract and figurative motifs, as well as commemorative dates and other inscriptions, can be placed on the watch by the manufacture’s master engravers.

Of course, the Reverso offers the opportunity for a double display of the time, though it’s surprising that this natural ability to display two time zones wasn’t exploited until fairly recently — in 1994, the Reverso Duo was created, which retains all the exquisite perfection of proportion of the classic Reverso while offering back-to-back time

The result, in 1931, was destined to become one of the most instantly recognizable watches in history: the Reverso.

The Reverso’s magic is multifaceted. Though considered one of the most important and successful instances of modern industrial design, it’s intriguing to consider that its conception centered on utilitarian considerations. The problem of a watch glass’ fragility was addressed, in many of the so-called “trench watches” used during the First World War, by protecting the front of the watch with a grillwork of metal that still allowed the time to be read through it. This solution, however, has not had the enduring appeal of the Reverso. The Reverso’s case provides a tactile pleasure as compelling as the visual experience offered by its harmoniously proportioned case, and it’s the Reverso’s ability to romance both hand and eye that has given it an especially perennial charm.

Operating the Reverso’s case is an exercise in sheer mechanical pleasure; the crisp and precise quality it has in the hand gives the same reassuring sense of solidity as shutting the door of a well-made car. But the Reverso is not only an exercise in idiosyncratically engaging mechanics. The back of the watch is a blank canvas on which the imagination of the owner can be exercised to an almost infinite degree; in fact, it was in the land of its birth, India, with its tradition of decorative miniature painting which flourished during

the many faces of the reverso: [clockwise, from top left] the grande reverso 976 ; the original reverso, circa 1931; the reverso grande gmt; the grande reverso 986 duodate

THE REvERSO’S CASE pROvIDES A TACTILE pLEASURE AS COMpELLING AS THE vISUAL ExpERIENCE OFFERED BY ITS HARMONIOUSLY pROpORTIONED CASE

TWO FACES OF TIME:THE JAEGER-LECOULTRE REvERSO


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T he high-water mark of the golden age of the wristwatch might very well be in the years after the close of the Second World War. If

the First World War made the wristwatch acceptable, the Second made it truly universal. Soldiers, sailors, and airmen all relied on the ability of wristwatches to provide a degree of accuracy that hitherto had been provided only by pocket watches, and a level of robustness, reliability, and practicality that the latter never could. Such watches as the Jaeger-LeCoultre pilot’s navigation watches Mark VII and XI, made to stringent military specifications, were among the generation of timepieces that validated the wristwatch, not only as a precision instrument, but as a ubiquitous tool as well. These military watches were destined to become the older brothers of post-war precision chronometers, such as the Geophysic chronometer of 1958 (one of which was worn by the commander of the USS Nautilus, the world’s first nuclear submarine and the first to reach the North Pole) and the Geomatic chronometer of 1962. Jaeger-LeCoultre

also began production of a range of dive watches as well, including the Master Mariner, Deep Sea, and the Polaris, and the manufacture’s production of such special-purpose, high-precision, and highly robust

timepieces was a logical continuation of its pre-war involvement with the automotive and aviation

industries, as well as Edmond Jaeger’s early experience with marine chronometers.

This spirit of practicality, optimism, and modernity was also the atmosphere in which one of Jaeger-LeCoultre’s most famous post-war era watches was born: the Memovox. The alarm wristwatch is both a link

to the earliest forms of mechanical horology — one of the earliest known watches, a German watch

from the mid-16th century, is fitted with an alarm — and something very modern. Alarm wristwatches

had been tried sporadically in the years between the early 20th century and the end of the Second World War, but they had never been really successful as most were simply not loud enough to be useful. But by the beginning of the 1950s, the first practical

displays, making it perhaps the ultimate elegant world traveler’s wristwatch (the movement, cal. 854, shows the local and home time, as well as a 24-hour indication). As a vehicle for the expression of the art of complications, the Reverso offers unique possibilities as well, and two of modern watchmaking’s most important timepieces have been housed in the Reverso case: the Reverso Gyrotourbillon 2, and the Reverso Grande Complication à Triptyque.

The Gyrotourbillon 2 is a watch that would have brought a smile to the face of Edmond Jaeger himself. In its construction, which includes a cylindrical hairspring like those used in marine chronometers, as well as in the design of the tourbillon, whose multiple axes of rotation improve on the single axis of rotation of the original tourbillon to provide better reduction of gravity’s negative effects on accuracy, the Gyrotourbillon 2 is designed from the ground up as proof that the no-holds-barred practice of precision chronometry to which Edmond Jaeger was devoted is a living art at Jaeger-LeCoultre.

The Reverso Grande Complication à Triptyque does the original Reverso design one better in displaying its multiple indications on not two, but three faces. The Triptyque is notable in containing one of the largest numbers of astronomical complications of any modern timepiece. Such complications are rarely seen in combination, both because of their complexity, and because the difficulty of displaying so much information legibly is nearly insurmountable on a conventional watch dial. With the case front, back, and carrier used as displays, however, the Triptyque wears its complexity lightly, though a complete list still astonishes: civil time, 24-hour indication, sidereal time, zodiac calendar, the equation of time, sunrise and sunset times, a planispheric star chart of either the Northern or Southern hemispheres (as specified by the owner), a perpetual calendar showing day, month, year, the phase and age of the moon, and a retrograde date display. It is certainly one of the most comprehensive combinations of astronomical complications in the history of watchmaking, and as if that were not enough, it also contains a novel escapement: the Ellipse Isometer escapement, a variation of the detent escapement used in marine chronometers.

Yet for all the almost infinite diversity of design and complexity of which the Reverso is capable, there is a patrician perfection to the watch in its simplest form — the Reverso Classique, with its shaped caliber 846 — that exerts a fascination which sets it apart from its more complex brethren. Today’s Reverso Classique charms for the same reason it first did in 1931 — its ability to make private, and thus intimately personal, the experience of the passage of time.

[top] the reverso grande complication à triptyque houses no less than nine different

astronomical complications[bottom] the reverso gyrotourbillon 2

features a cylindrical hairspring in addition to a multiple-axis tourbillon

vOICE OF TIME: THE MEMOvOx



alarm watches were being produced, and one of the leading manufacturers was Jaeger-LeCoultre.

The Jaeger-LeCoultre Memovox captured the post-war spirit of progress, optimism and efficiency to a T, but it was also a watch of classically beautiful design. The very first Memovox, brought out in 1950, is easily recognizable by its distinctive barrel-shaped lugs, and was powered by the Grande Maison’s first alarm movement, the caliber 489. Six years later, in 1956, Jaeger-LeCoultre produced a world’s first: a movement that combined its expertise in the alarm complication with its status as a pioneer in the creation of automatic watches (the Futurematic of 1953 was the world’s first entirely automatic watch, with no provision for automatic winding at all). This was the caliber 815 — the world’s first automatic alarm watch movement.

Since then, the Memovox watches have existed in an enormous variety of incarnations. The number of dive watches alone which have been fitted with descendants of the original Memovox cal. 489 would fill an entire volume, and include the first dive watch ever to be fitted with an alarm — the Memovox Deep Sea, first produced in 1959, and the Polaris, first produced in 1965. The latter was made in relatively small numbers — only 1,714 — but its special case construction (it had a three-layered caseback, with the outermost pierced to allow sound to escape more easily when worn against a diver’s wetsuit) and distinctive design have given it an appeal to collectors out of all proportion to the number made.

So enduring has the original Polaris design proven to be that it has continued to influence Jaeger-LeCoultre’s sports and utility watch designs to the present day. In 2008, the “Homage to Polaris” limited editions were released, and the AMVOX1 Alarm and Master Compressor Diving Alarm Navy SEALs watches are both clearly in the same design lineage (the AMVOX1 Alarm, though not a dive watch, duplicates the original Polaris’ three-crown system, with the central crown operating the inner turning bezel).

But what is just as remarkable as the longevity of the inspired designs of the Memovox family is the longevity of the Memovox movements. Though the latest Memovox caliber, cal. 956, has all the up-to-the-minute features of a modern, technically advanced automatic caliber, including ceramic bearings for the rotor and a free sprung variable inertia balance, a glance at the basic architecture of the movement reveals that it is, in fact a direct descendant of the original Memovox cal. 489 of 1950. That the Memovox calibers have evolved continuously over the last 60 years, with steady improvements to such critical performance elements as beat rate and automatic-winding efficiency, is a testimony to Jaeger-LeCoultre’s commitment to perfectionism in

engineering. That the basic design of the movement has had to change little, if at all, is equally strong testimony to the strength of the manufacture’s heritage of technical prowess, and gives the owner of any of today’s Memovox watches the pleasure of possessing a timepiece that represents not only cutting-edge performance, but a real piece of horological history.

This year, Jaeger-LeCoultre introduced two watches which not only use Memovox calibers, but which also proudly carry the name. The Master Memovox carries strong echoes of the original Memovox watch, including the dauphine hands and triangular markers of the first model from 1950. The most immediately noticeable cosmetic difference is the lugs — the 2010 Master Memovox has curved horn-shaped lugs instead of the barrel lugs of the original. Inside, it’s a thoroughly modern Memovox,

though — with the same cutting-edge cal. 956 that powers the Master Compressor Diving Alarm Navy SEALs watch.

The Master Memovox International is a reinterpretation of a model from the iconic era of Memovox design. The original Memovox

Worldtime was created for the Grande Maison’s 125th anniversary, in 1958, and, in combining the world-time function with the alarm function, expressed both the jet-setting international flavor of the era, as well as its focus on the future, with the combination of elegance, clarity, and technical precision. Fortunately for today’s connoisseurs, that combination is available again in the limited-edition Master Memovox International, which like the new Master Memovox is driven by a state-of-the-art caliber, and which updates the straight-lugged case of the original with the more robust and yet at the same time, more timeless Master Control case.

TOUCHSTONES OF THE GRANDE MAISONThese three timepieces — the Master Ultra Thin, the Reverso, and the Master Memovox — are not the only iconic watches in Jaeger-LeCoultre’s collection. The haut de gamme complications available from the manufacture are also in a distinct lineage of development which reaches back to the earliest days of the manufacture, and the 2010 Master Grande Tradition Grande Complication with its orbital tourbillon which rounds the dial once per sidereal day, its planispheric star chart, and minute repeater, is a direct descendant of such timepieces as the 1928 Grande Complication pocket watch, which was also a resumé of astronomical complications.

But there is a unique attraction to these three timepieces. They have each achieved something very difficult; while born of a specific confluence of individuals and circumstances, they have also become representative of worlds of time in and of themselves. Whether it is in the act of essentialism represented by the Master Ultra Thin, the tactility and privacy represented by the Reverso, or the musicality of the Memovox, to handle any of these watches is to touch not only the history of watchmaking, but also the spirit of the times that gave birth to each of them. They are essential watches, in two senses — in the more superficial sense, watches which anyone interested in both the technical and social history of watchmaking should feel obliged to experience in person. But in a deeper sense: each timepiece exposes an aspect of how we personally experience the passage of time, and in doing so reveals the fundamental fascination of mechanical watchmaking itself, and its enduring value. H

THAT THE MEMOvOx CALIBERS HAvE EvOLvED CONTINUOUSLY OvER THE LAST 60 YEARS WITH

STEADY IMpROvEMENTS TO CRITICAL pERFORMANCE ELEMENTS IS A TESTIMONY TO JAEGER-LECOULTRE’S COMMITMENT TO pERFECTIONISM IN ENGINEERING

[top] the master compressor diving alarm navy seals[bottom, from left] the first memovox model, circa 1950; the 2008 memovox tribute to polaris



vOIcE OF MEMORy: JAEGER-LECOULTRE’S ETERNAL MEMOvOx

Born in the golden-voiced era of the 1950s, Jaeger-LeCoultre’s Memovox, the world’s first mechanical alarm watch, has cast its siren song on us for over half a century. This extraordinary timepiece features two dedicated barrels, one for the alarm function and one for time telling. Its back case has been specially crafted to feature a sound-resonating chamber projecting its powerful voice consistently and clearly. As of this year, it comes as the Master Memovox International, which also offers a world time function that tells you the time in all of the world’s 24 zones at one glance.

JAEGER-LECOULTRE MASTER MEMOvOx INTERNATIONAL IN ROSE GOLD

white sequined criss-cross bandage dress, herve leger

opposite page JAEGER-LECOULTRE MASTER MEMOvOx IN ROSE GOLD

black halter dress and collar piece, both salvatore ferragamo

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JAEGER-LECOULTRE MASTER MEMOvOx INTERNATIONAL IN STAINLESS STEEL

white sequined criss-cross bandage dress, herve leger

opposite page JAEGER-LECOULTRE MASTER MEMOvOx IN STAINLESS STEEL

red bustier dress, dkny

photographer STEpHEN LANDAU styling ESTHER QUEK makeup MANINDER KRISHNAN hair ANDY RAzALI USING REDKEN model THALLYTA/pHANTOM



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