SIHH 2015: Master Grande Tradition Tourbillon Cylindrique à Quantième Perpétuel
SIHH 2015: Master Grande Tradition Tourbillon Cylindrique à Quantième Perpétuel
Like its detailed and exhaustive name, this new creation from Jaeger-LeCoultre 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 earth is blue like an orange”, wrote the French poet Paul Éluard. Blue like the Master Grande Tradition Tourbillon Cylindrique à Quantième Perpétuel, mirroring the sky in all its plenitude.
A user-friendly Perpetual Calendar
One can easily imagine the energy a watch required to power a perpetual calendar, a mechanism capable of indicating the days, months and years, while taking account of the varying lengths of each month and of leap years. The interaction between the multiple gear trains of a perpetual calendar generally results in a loss of precision. Such is not the case with the Master Grande Tradition Tourbillon Cylindrique à Quantième Perpétuel, thanks to its ingenious association with the ultra-powerful tourbillon developed by Jaeger-LeCoultre.
The second distinctive feature of this perpetual calendar relates to the clarity of the calendar information. The eye sweeps across the dial and easily takes in the perfectly readable indications – day, month and date – appearing in a traditional manner on three counters, with the 3 o’clock one also providing a moon-phase display.
Last but not least, the Master Grande Tourbillon Cylindrique à Quantième Perpétuel has been designed by the Manufacture to ensure smooth handling and optimal adjustment by means of a single push-piece. 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.
A tourbillon born of the Manufacture’s inventive nature
It single-handedly steals the show. 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.
The Master Grande Tradition Cylindrique à Quantième Perpétuel offers a final source of delight to all those who will be fortunate enough to contemplate its 22-carat oscillating weight visible through the back of the watch. This superbly engraved component bears a reproduction of the gold medal won by Jaeger-LeCoultre at the Paris Universal Exhibition in 1889.