GMT- Printemps-Eté 2010Christophe Persoz, watchmaker
This year's SIHH in Geneva was admittedly not necessarily brimming with stand-out new releases. A number of brands were content with merely presenting line extensions or new interpretations of products already appearing in their catalogue. This is of course chiefly due to the tough financial year we have just experienced. It would appear that the watch industry is no longer engaged in the frantic race for showy technical features that we have seen over the past decade, and is instead refocusing on fundamental values. While this salutary change of course is doubtless one of the lessons learned from the crisis, we can only hope that our watchmakers have better memories than bankers, since this new tendency certainly seems far more liable to benefit all the players in this economic field.
Duomètre à Quantième Lunaire © Jaeger-LeCoultre
In keeping with its traditions, the Manufacture based in Le Sentier certainly sets a fine example and seems to be one step ahead of its competitors by presenting a new complicated watch in which the genuine innovation consists in providing an original solution for a hitherto unresolved problem: the deterioration in rate due to the energy consumed by complications. This observation gave rise in 2007 to the Dual Wing concept which is embodied in the Duomètre à Quantième Lunaire.
Until now, each complication and each indication appearing on the dial came between the motor organ and the regulating organ by representing an additional number of wheels to be driven and spring forces to be overcome. These significant and sometimes substantial energy-consumption rates have an extremely disturbing influence on the oscillations of the balance and hence on the long-term rate of a watch.
To solve this problem, Jaeger-LeCoultre developed a movement equipped with two independent mainsprings: one exclusively devoted to supplying the regulating organ; and the other to provide the energy required for the full set of indications – in this case the hours, minutes, seconds, date and moon phases. The synchronisation between these two separate mechanisms (hence the term Dual Wing) is ensured by the jumping seconds hand (appearing at 6 o'clock). This ingenious device uses an insignificant amount of energy compared with the indications provided, and is above all constant. This results in a “zero” degree of influence on the regulating organ.
Spectacular
After such a technical introduction, one could legitimately expect to find a dial covered with overlapping hands and thus pretty hard to read. On the contrary, the twin architecture of themovement enabled a perfectly distinct and highly legible spread of the indications over the entire dial. Symmetrically positioned on the left-hand side, a pointer-type date is displayed concentrically to a moon-phase indicator enhanced by a double hand indicating the age of the moon in days , as well as the state of its phase in the Northern or Southern hemisphere.
A “traditional” seconds hand occupies the central position, while the lower part of the dial features a spectacular jumping seconds hand making a complete rotation in one second, a time interval in turn divided into six successive jumps.
Two openings on other side of the jumping seconds display set the finishing touch to the balanced dial aesthetic, while unveiling the powerreserve indications for the two sources of energy. The picture would not be complete without mentioning the reset device for the two seconds hand when setting the time, an operation that is effected without stopping the balance oscillations; as well as the exquisite quality of the movement finishing and decoration that may be admired through the sapphire crystal back.
Issued in a 300-piece yellow gold limited edition and in an unlimited production run in pink gold, the Duomètre à Quantième Lunaire answers a problem as old as mechanical horology and is based on the noblest – and sadly oft-forgotten values – that best define the luxury universe: ingenuity, expertise... and hard work!
