Nicolas, Asi and I, were fortunate to visit the laboratories which regrouped to give birth to this ultimate mechanical work of art.
Each group of parts of the movement will need no less than an encyclopaedia to detail their making, finishing and functions.
This timepiece left the 3 of us speechless!
To not discredit in anyways this piece of made of magic and utmost expertise, here below, directly from Jaeger-LeCoultre, The Gyrotourbillon I
Enjoy! Yves Odier.
Unique and worthy of all the superlatives,
The Gyrotourbillon I,
Jaeger-LeCoultre’s spherical tourbillon.
For this world first, the Gyrotourbillon I returns to the very roots of horological complications, a domain in which Jaeger-LeCoultre has led the field for over a century.
Through the exercise of their art, designers make time visible and enable us to watch its magical progress with our own eyes. Their task, it might be said, is to fit form to function – but not only that…
With the Gyrotourbillon I, Jaeger-LeCoultre has gone one step further. In the same way that the Manufacture’s master-watchmakers have used special materials in crafting the tourbillon’s spherical carriage, its designers have deployed glass to enhance the radiance of the top part of the dial, playfully revealing the fixed wheel of the time equation and unveiling for the first time an innovative semi-circular date display.
The lower part of the dial benefits from a restrained design that is a perfect foil to the beauty of the tourbillon itself. The functions (perpetual month indicator, power reserve) have a discreet presence and the filigree-worked bridges allow the eye an uninterrupted view of the balance-wheel and escapement at the heart of the spherical tourbillon. Never before has a tourbillon been revealed to view at such a revealing, tilted angle.
And the show doesn’t end there. A sapphire-crystal case-back reveals the functioning of a retrograde leap-year indicator. Every element of the design is a conscious result of the watchmakers’ quest for total horological perfection. Even at the beginning of the 21st century, when luxury watchmaking seems a well-established craft, Jaeger-LeCoultre continues its search for the exceptional with undiminished enthusiasm.
The Gyrotourbillon I’s Calibre 177 is the crowning glory of the vast range of complications that have sustained the Manufacture’s reputation for horological excellence for more than a century now: minute-repeaters, chronographs, calendars, alarms, different timezone indicators, tourbillons and, last but not least, the smallest and flattest watch movements in the world, wound manually or automatically. To this day, mechanical watchmaking remains subject to at least one unalterable law: the smaller and flatter the design, the greater the complexity of its realisation.
The Calibre Jaeger-LeCoultre 177:
Ordinary dimensions, extraordinary diversity
The new manually wound Jaeger-LeCoultre Calibre 177 packs 512 elements into its diameter of 36.3 mm and height of 10.85 mm. It beats at the heart of a timepiece that is nonetheless far more than the sum of its parts, boasting an array of functions and displays without precedent in the seven centuries of mechanical watchmaking history.
Let’s look first at the power reserve. The two barrels, mounted in series and equipped with sapphire-crystal covers to limit loss owing to friction, store enough energy for 8 days. They power a movement which, in addition to the hours and minutes, indicates the power reserve, the perpetual date and month, leap years and the time equation – incontrovertible evidence that the master-watchmakers of Jaeger-LeCoultre are not easily satisfied in their quest for horological excellence.
Instant, double retrograde and perpetual date display
To guarantee maximum legibility, the date scale stretches in an arc across the whole of the dial. Since the axis of the minute and hour hands cannot be crossed, the task of indicating the date is divided between two retrograde hands. That on the left is responsible for the first half of the month and that on the right for the second half. To avoid any possible confusion, the inactive hand remains in a rest position. The changeover takes place on the 16th of each month, when the two hands are united for 24 hours. Then the pointer on the left returns to its starting position, while that on the right jumps forward on the stroke of midnight to the next date. To power these tours de force, the mechanism takes small amounts of energy continuously from the movement throughout the day, storing it in the springs and liberating it at the appropriate moment. Such ingenuity ensures that the oscillations of the balance-wheel are not disturbed.
Turning time equation
The perpetual calendar automatically adjusts the time equation. The latter function is exceedingly rare nowadays. As we all know, the earth revolves in an ellipse around the sun. Since the earth’s axis is tilted, the length of the solar day is constantly changing. The time difference between the longest and the shortest day is 30 minutes and 45 seconds, an unacceptably large variation if daily life is not to be disturbed. That is why humanity long ago defined for itself a mean solar day consisting of 24 hours of equal length. This is the only kind of time ordinarily displayed by watches.
The actual but largely ignored difference between mean and true solar time is represented by the time equation. The annual cycle can be shown in mathematical form, reaching its maximum points of difference on 10 and 11 February (+14 minutes and 24 seconds) and 3 November (-16 minutes and 21 seconds). Four times a year (15 April, 13 June, 1 September and 25 December) true solar time is identical to mean solar time. Though it plays virtually no part in most people’s daily lives, astronomers are strongly dependent on true time in order to be able to follow cosmic events. Thus, for the scientifically-minded, the Jaeger-LeCoultre Calibre 177 comes equipped with a second running minute hand; its function is signalled by the sun decoration at its tip and it is driven by an epicycloidal cam that completes a single turn about its axis every year, illustrating the difference between true and
mean time. Whereas in traditional constructions a hand indicated this difference on a separate dial, the Jaeger-LeCoultre Calibre 177’s time-equation hand moves in step with the hour and minute hands, so saving the observer the trouble of making complicated calculations.
On request, Jaeger-LeCoultre can set the solar time to a particular place. The name of the location will be engraved on a small plaque fixed to the movement of the watch, which will then be visible through the sapphire-crystal back.
The consecration of the tourbillon
By their very nature, tourbillons can only compensate for the negative influence of gravity when they are in the vertical position: the carriage, which supports the balance, balance-spring and escapement, traditionally only turns in one direction. Of course, tourbillons were initially conceived for use in pocket watches, which were usually carried upright in a jacket pocket. The situation is different with wristwatches, however, since their positions in relation to the earth’s gravitational field are continually changing. Wristwatches thus demand multi- directional rotations of a kind carried out by the Jaeger-LeCoultre Calibre 177 in totally unprecedented fashion.
The ultra-light external carriage makes a complete turn about its axis every sixty seconds. The internal titanium and aluminium carriage, which supports the balance, balance-spring and escapement, rotates around an axis that runs at a right angle to the first, completing a turn every 24 seconds. The balance thus passes twice every minute in all its glory before the eyes of the observer, before continuing its tottering, seemingly weightless but precisely charted course through the microcosm of the spherical tourbillon, which is of infinite lightness – the total weight of the 100 parts that comprise this complex rotating body is only a third of a gram.
Only in the case of the balance have Jaeger-LeCoultre’s technicians not automatically selected the lightest materials available. Along with the adjustment inertia-blocks under the felloe, the balance-wheel is made of 14-carat gold so as to obtain a particularly high force of inertia. The Breguet spiral oscillates freely at a rate of 3 Hz (21,600 vibrations an hour).
Owners even benefit from a seconds indicator, a function missing from traditional tourbillons. With the Gyrotourbillon, the role of the seconds hand is taken by a small pointer on the external aluminium carriage.
It is always best to consider worst-case scenarios, so the watch has been equipped with six anti-shock devices: two in the aluminium carriage, two in the internal revolving titanium carriage and two in the balance.
Excellence has always been a rare commodity, so Jaeger-LeCoultre will only ever make 75 examples of the Gyrotourbillon I. And since, even at the beginning of the 21st century, miracles still take a little time to happen, production at the Manufacture will not exceed 20 watches a year. The price will be 390,000 CHF, including tax.
Gyrotourbillon I: technical characteristics
Movement:
• diameter: 36.3 mm
• height: 10.85 mm
• parts: 512
• jewels: 77
• barrels: two with sapphire-crystal lid and base
• power reserve: 8 days
Spherical tourbillon:
• balance: monometallic in 14-carat gold with outlying 14-carat-gold setting inertia-blocks
• balance-spring: quality I, freely oscillating Breguet oscillating speed of the balance-wheel: 21,600 vibrations per hour (3 Hz)
• diameter: 13.86 mm
• weight: 0.336 grams
• parts: 100
• rotation speeds: exterior carriage in aluminium 1/minute interior carriage in titanium an aluminium 2.5/minute
• anti-shock devices: six
Functions:
• hours, minutes and seconds
• power reserve
• time equation
• indication of the perpetual date by two retrograde hands (from the 1st to the 16th and from the 16th to the 28th, 29th, 30th or 31st)
• perpetual retrograde month indicator
• retrograde leap-year indicator on the back of the watch
Case:
• 950 platinum
• 43 mm in diameter
• 14.9 mm in height including the sapphire crystal
Strap:
• hand-stitched alligator leather, 950 platinum folding clasp
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