Jaeger-LeCoultre Grand Master Tourbillon Continents Limited Edition Watches
Jun 22, 2009
By Ariel Adams for ViaLuxe.com
Enamel work on watch dials is popular in collector’s circles but few watch companies can really accomplish the technique with any mastery. It goes back to the concept that the best watch companies succeed technically and artistically. This goes along with a key rule of real luxury, that dictates a premium should be paid for items displaying techniques that are very difficult achieve, and where only a few people around have the skills to do them. Which brings me to the new Jaeger-LeCoultre Grand Master Tourbillon Continents Watch lines – where three models each embody a combination of machine guilloche engraving and painstaking hand applied champlevé enamel work on the dial.
The watches begin with a manually-wound in-house Jaeger-LeCoultre Calibre 978 tourbillon movement. The movement is displayed through a sapphire exhibition caseback, while the tourbillon carriage itself is visible though the dial and doubles as a subsidiary seconds hand. The watch hands are sharp and easy to read like compass hands. Accordingly, the bezel of the Grand Master Tourbillon Continents watch has compass directional symbols applied that double as hour indicators for the time.
The real appeal of the watch is in the map styled dials – of which there will be three. First is the pictured version showing Asia and Australia, then another with Europe and Africa, and final version showing the Americas. Each version will be available in a limited edition of 60, with 20 pieces in 18k white, rose, or yellow gold. As the maps of the world are showing the planet, Earth tones are used for the land masses over the vertical texturing. The oceans are a rich watery blue with a wave-styled pattern that help the whole display pop out. I don’t know whether the color scheme on the continents means anything in specific, but the design is impressive and very visually stimulating. This is just part of Jaeger-LeCoultre’s ongoing effort to assert themselves as the premier brand for both technically and visually timepieces.
Ariel Adams publishes the popular luxury watch review site aBlogtoRead.com.
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