Like its detailed and exhaustive name, this new creation from JaegerLeCoultre is intended to be both comprehensive and precise. It certainly demonstrates both these qualities through the sophisticated association of a flying tourbillon and a perpetual calendar, and also because it faithfully reproduces celestial movements – the earth’s rotation around the sun, along with moon phases and zodiac decans.
The most striking new feature of this edition lies in a new stellar indication – zodiac signs – appearing on the counter at 12 o’clock. By indicating the 12 signs through which the sun travels in one year, along with a year indication corresponding to the earth’s rotation around the sun, as well as the moon phases, months and days, the Master Grande Tradition Cylindrique à Quantième Perpétuel provides an extremely comprehensive transcription of the movements of the heavenly bodies – like an open window onto the cycles of the cosmos
The entire set of indications is “programmed” in the movement. Simply setting the correct date automatically adjusts the month, year and moon-phase indications. All of which means that, providing it is kept wound, this watch will require no manual correction before March 1st 2100.
Apart from the fascinating zodiac and calendar, fixed on its lower side only, the tourbillon of the Master Grande Tradition Tourbillon Cylindrique à Quantième Perpétuel is an authentic feat that one never tires of admiring. Its titanium case houses a gold balance, as well as the cylindrical balance spring developed by the Jaeger-LeCoultre teams and of which the consistently concentric beat guarantees peerless chronometric precision. A valuable asset for a construction so light and airy that it appears to be actually levitating.
Above and beyond the strikingly complex technical achievement, this new creation from the Manufacture is an invitation to consider a watch as a cultural object imbued with genuine significance. Each complication with its prodigious mechanism, each infinitely small component, is nurtured by the age-old wisdom of Haute Horlogerie and presents an extraordinary expression of what human beings can accomplish.
TECHNICAL CHARACTERISTICS
Movement • Mechanical automatic movement, Jaeger-LeCoultre Calibre 985, crafted, assembled and decorated by hand • 45-hour power reserve • 28,800 vibrations per hour • 431 parts • 49 jewels • 8.25 mm thick • 30.7 mm in diameter
Dial • Grained blue, polished silver-toned baton-type appliques and traditional transferred minute circle
Hands • Dauphine-type
Functions • Hours, minutes, small seconds indication on the flying tourbillon • Perpetual calendar. Indication of the date, day, month, year, red zone and moon phase • Zodiac signs
Case • 18-carat white gold • 13.1 mm thick • 42 mm in diameter • Polished lugs and satin-brushed sides • Water-resistance: 5 bar
Bracelet • Hand-sewn high-end alligator, 18-carat white gold pin buckle
Reference • Q504 35 80
