The new model from Jaeger-LeCoultre is 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.

Grande Complication pocket-watch from 1928 by Jaeger-LeCoultre

Engraving and Skeletonising
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.

After completing a detailed skeletonising plan, the master and his team take their traditional jigsaws and limes in hand and begin the delicate work. Millimetre after millimetre are meticulously sawn away to eliminate superfluous “flesh” from the movement. The skeletonising process is irreversible, so even the slightest error would be fatal. All parts of the movement are then bevelled, polished and elaborately engraved by hand, one by one. The farther the work progresses, the more clearly this synthesis of the horological arts comes into view.

Dominique Vuez, master engraver at Jaeger-LeCoultre

Enamelling
The next task is to decorate the white gold rings, one adorning the dial and another one for the case back of the watch. First finely chiseled by hand, they are then covered with blue transparent enamel using the grand feu “champlevé” method. Master enameller Miklos Merczel and his team begin by applying the enamel on the surface of the piece using a very small paintbrush.

Afterwards the piece is repeatedly fired in a kiln until it acquires the desired blue hue. Each firing, which reaches temperatures between 800 and 820 degrees Celsius, jeopardises the artwork because the torrid heat could cause cracks or undesired inclusions. The piece is then delicately polished with diamond powder. Enamelling always demands plenty of patience, and the Manufacture’s most experienced enamellers need 2 days of work to complete the two enamel rings that surround the dial and movement.

Master Grande Tradition à Quantième Perpétuel 8 jours SQ by Jaeger-LeCoultre

A watchmaker from the atelier for Complications Horlogères then begins to unite the more than 200 springs, levers, program wheels, pinions and gears with the tiny artworks from Dominique Vuez and Miklos Merczel. But anyone who assumes that this ticking objet d’art is finished would be mistaken, because the assembled timepiece is now subjected to meticulous tests of its functions and to numerous stress tests, which are performed in the Jaeger-LeCoultre’s 1000 hours control unit. The examiners here are unforgiving because the Manufacture’s high standards of quality must be unconditionally upheld. Only now is the artwork of the Master Grande Tradition à Quantième Perpétuel 8 jours SQ complete.

A total of 200 Master Grande Tradition à Quantième Perpétuel 8 jours SQ wristwatches will leave the Manufacture in the Vallée de Joux, and each one of them will be unique. The engravers and enamellers cannot possibly fabricate two absolutely identical models. Numerous tiny details necessarily distinguish one skeletonised movement from all others, and the grand feu enamel in one watch will never be wholly identical with its counterpart in another.

Source: Jaeger-LeCoultre