Minimalism is over; high complications are back. After several years of pared-down vintage looks in luxury men’s watches – with even tourbillons discreetly hidden under dials or visible only on casebacks – Jaeger-LeCoultre is among the luxury brands filling the void with dramatic high complications this fall. The brand has released new, limited variations of two of its most coveted complications.
The Master Grande Tradition Caliber 948 world timer/tourbillon is an edition of five pieces with a dark blue enamel dial and pink gold case, and the Master Hybris Artistica Caliber 945 cosmotourbillon/minute repeater is a 20-piece edition with a blue enamel dial and pink gold case. It’s traditional high watchmaking combined with a current look: blue dials and pink gold cases are becoming a popular combo in luxury watches.
The Master Grande Tradition Caliber 948 was originally launched in 2022 in white gold, and it was the first time that a world-time complication had ever been united with a flying tourbillon. A map of the world as seen from the North Pole covers the central dial, created using nine layers of champlevé enamel for the continents and hand-guillochage covered by 17 layers of hand-lacquering for the ocean dial plate. You can see the guilloché through the layers of lacquer, which represents the waves of the ocean. The movement is a rare, one-day tourbillon – typically, a tourbillon rotates once every 60 seconds, but this one makes a single rotation of the dial in 24 hours, as does the domed world map, in tune with the rotation of Earth.
The Master Hybris Artistica Caliber 945 is another rarity: it’s a cosmotourbillon, with a bonus minute repeater function. A cosmotourbillon keeps sidereal time by making a complete, counter-clockwise circuit of the dial in one sidereal day. Sidereal time, slightly less than 24 hours, measures Earth’s rotation in relation to fixed stars (also called celestial time), as opposed to the 24-hour civil time, which measures Earth’s orbit around the Sun. The dial, created in midnight-blue champlevé enamel, depicts the constellations of the northern hemisphere as seen from Switzerland’s Vallée de Joux, where JLC is headquartered. It is covered by a golden-colored, filigree metal structure made of 117 interconnected spheres, evoking the lines of the constellations.
Defined by its heritage as one of the most prolific mechanical movement makers in high watchmaking history, Jaeger-LeCoultre is known as the watchmaker’s watchmaker. It has created 1,400 calibers to date.