Jaeger-LeCoultre Master Grande Tradition à QP 8 Jours SQ

Feb

Our friends at Jaeger-LeCoultre once again shows the depth and breadth of its expertise with the new Master Grande Tradition à Quantième Perpétuel 8 jours SQ, inspired by a historical Grande Complication pocket-watch from 1928. Eighty-six years after, the skilled hands of skeletonisers and enamellers created a masterpiece of contemporary Haute Horlogerie in a limited edition of 200 timepieces.

The engraving and skeletonising artists have dedicated themselves to a new technical and artistic challenge. “It is indeed a high art to pare away as much ‘flesh’ as possible from a movement without adversely affecting its qualities”, master engraver Dominique Vuez explains. The engravers know the necessary tricks. “Our customers want to be able to see as many of the details as possible. But when we skeletonise a movement, we must assure that neither its rigidity nor its reliability could potentially be undermined.”

The engraver began by obtaining the relevant documents for Jaeger-LeCoultre Calibre 876 from its designers. He then determined which components could safely be pierced and which portions of those components could be cut away. In collaboration with watchmakers from the ateliers for Complications Horlogères, he specified every tiny detail in his sketches and plans. Of course, he could rely on the many years of experience and on the legacy handed down to his generation from his predecessors in the Manufacture, who had used similar technical aids to accomplish the intricate tasks of skeletonising.