Jaeger-LeCoultre just released a watch that you'll never need to adjust for over a century
Jaeger-LeCoultre serves grand complications with their new release, a Master Ultra Thin Tourbillon and two new Master Grande Tradition models
FEW WATCHMAKERS manage to balance a fine-tuned, aesthetic asceticism with the theatre of grand complications the way Jaeger-LeCoultre does. And rarely does the Swiss brand overtly flaunt it. But with their two new timepieces launching today, the Master Ultra Thin Tourbillon and two new Master Grande Tradition models, they’re definitely reminding watch fans just how good they are at what they do.
The Master Ultra Thin Tourbillon
Jaeger-LeCoultre has revisited one of its most restrained designs, the Master Ultra Thin Tourbillon, with a dial that foregrounds the Maison’s Métiers Rares workshops. Produced in a limited run of just 50 pieces, the new Tourbillon Enamel is housed in a 40mm pink gold case and measures a slim 12.13mm in thickness.
The dial is the focal point. Its anthracite grey surface is created in Grand Feu enamel over a guilloché pattern of 180 radiating lines. Each line requires six passes of the rose-engine lathe – 1,080 incisions in total – before the enameller applies five separate layers of enamel, each fired at 800°C. The result is a surface that shifts subtly with light, contrasting against the azurage guilloché of the date sub-dial.
Inside sits the Calibre 978, Jaeger-LeCoultre’s workhorse tourbillon movement and winner of the 2009 International Chronometry Prize. Updated in 2019, the calibre is fitted with a titanium cage that, along with 76 other components, weighs less than half a gram. It beats at 28,800 vibrations per hour and provides a 45-hour power reserve. A flat, two-level hairspring with curved attachment points ensures consistency of oscillation, while finishing details include hand-bevelling, straight graining and drawn flanks. Hours, minutes, a date, and small seconds on the tourbillon complete the display.
The black alligator strap is lined with small-scale alligator and secured with an interchangeable pink gold folding clasp. Water resistance is 5 bar, underscoring the everyday wearability of the piece. Reference Q13224E2 marks the edition.
Master Grande Tradition
If the Ultra Thin Tourbillon shows Jaeger-LeCoultre’s dressmaking instincts, the new Master Grande Tradition models reveal its more architectural side. Three variants, two in platinum with blue dials and one in pink gold with a brown dial, house Calibre 985, a high-complication movement first developed in 2013.
The calibre is built around a cylindrical flying tourbillon, a mechanism that incorporates an 18th-century hairspring design known for its concentric “breathing.” Shaped in-house, the cylindrical spring offers greater isochronism than its flat equivalent, helping the 83-part, titanium tourbillon – just 0.386 grams in weight – keep time with precision. And here’s the sweetener: a Calibre 985 integrates a perpetual calendar with day, date, month, year, and moon phase indications that will remain accurate for 122 years.
Hope your grandkids enjoy that little gift!
A 45-hour power reserve is delivered through an automatic winding system, visible on the reverse side beneath a 22k rose gold rotor engraved with the 1851 Great Exhibition medal awarded to Antoine LeCoultre.
The case, assembled from more than 80 components, measures 42mm across and 13.27mm in height. Surfaces alternate between polished, brushed and micro-blasted finishes. The pink gold version (Ref. Q5242461) is paired with a brown dial and matching alligator strap. The platinum edition is offered with either a polished bezel (Ref. Q5246580) or a bezel set with 72 baguette-cut diamonds totalling approximately 3.4 carats (Ref. Q5246508).
Dial details are subtle but exacting: micro-blasted minute tracks, opaline sub-dials, and laser-engraved numerals in relief. A 20-second arc beneath the tourbillon marks elapsed seconds, with three blue hands mounted on the cage indicating each third of its 60-second rotation.
The calibre’s finishing is apparent through the sapphire caseback – blued screws, sunrayed Côtes de Genève, snailing and hand-bevelling. The decoration underlines the Manufacturer’s point that complexity is not only functional but aesthetic.
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