Sunday March 15, 2009

Futuristic timepieces

Stories by DZIREENA MAHADZIR

In this second of a two-part look at the highlights of the Salon Internationale Haute Horlogerie 2009 in Geneva, StarMag features the newest offerings from Jaeger-LeCoultre, Montblanc and Cartier.

A watch that doubles as a car key? Whatever next?

Watchmaker Jaeger-LeCoultre (JLC), together with carmaker Aston Martin, revealed the AMVOX2 DBS Transponder at the Salon Internationale Haute Horlogerie (SIHH) recently – the first mechanical watch with the ability to lock and unlock the Aston Martin!

Crafted exclusively for owners of the Aston Martin DBS, the AMVOX2 DBS Transponder is the result of a design and engineering collaboration between the two companies.

The Master Grand Tourbillon Continents.

According to Magali Métrailler, designer at Jaeger-LeCoultre, the venture wasn’t just a style collaboration, but was also about finding a link between cars and watches.

“It was discussed in 2004, but only became reality two years ago when Aston Martin changed the system of their key. That’s when we started working on the watch,’’ he says.

“The unique electronic chip of the key is quite big so we worked a lot to reduce it and finally managed to make it very small. We also worked on the antenna shape for the transmission and we also needed to integrate it with the dials of the watch.’’

So what happens if you lose your watch?

Métrailler says Aston Martin can terminate access to the code and change the code in the car.

“The watches are sold at Aston Martin dealerships, and you need the car to buy the watch, but you don’t need the watch to buy the car!” he quips.

Apart from this amazing timepiece, JLC also showcased several other watches at the SIHH.

For something very special, the artists of the Manufacture presented two exceptional series which illustrate two traditional enamel techniques – grand feu and champlevé enamelling – on two famous timepieces in the Jaeger-LeCoultre collection: the Master Minute Repeater and the Master Grand Tourbillon.

First, Venus, the sumptious goddess of love and the muse of the Master Minute Repeater, was stunningly interpreted in the form of enamelled miniatures. Miniature enamel painting is the rarest and most precious of all the pictorial arts and the creation of such a masterpiece in this small a size calls for weeks of intense concentration. One painting on a single dial calls for between 80 to 150 hours of craftsmanship.

The Master Grand Tourbillon Continents sees the champlevé technique (literally meaning “raised field’’). The area to be decorated is hollowed out with a burin, leaving the partitions marking the individual “honeycomb cells’’ which represent he motifs to be reproduced on the gold dial plate.

The surface of each “continent’’ is meticulously engraved and guilloché-worked in the direction of the four points of the compass, echoed on the bezel, while the “oceans’’ are distinguished by wavelike decorative effects.

Each Master Grand Tourbillon presents one of the three large continents: Asia and Australia; the Americas; and Europe, Africa and the Middle East.

There is also the Master Compressor Diving Navy SEALs which has a grade five titanium case, unidirectional bezel and the ability to remain watertight to 1000m.

JLC signed a partnership with the United States’ Navy SEALs – the Navy’s elite unit of combat swimmers – and to mark this agreement, the Master Compressor Diving line is adding three limited series watches to its range. These will have a ceramic bezel and will be engraved with the Navy SEALs emblem.

The three new timepieces are the Master Compressor Diving Alarm Navy SEALs, the Master Compressor Diving Chronograph GMT Navy SEALs and the iconic Master Compressor Diving Pro Geographic Navy SEALs. The new collection gives divers a choice of three additional functions: A depth gauge with world time, an alarm, or a chronograph associated with a second time-zone display.

The art of enamelling is a long and painstaking process.

Also new this year is the Master Grande Tradition line which consists of the Master Grande Tradition à Répétition Minutes and the Master Grande Tradition Tourbillon à Quantième Perpétuel.

The Master Grande Tradition collection features combinations of functions that are new to the Manufacture. The first tourbillon is associated with a perpetual calendar and the other, the first minute repeater with a two-week power reserve allied with a regulator display.

This new line will also welcome the first ever silicon escapement from the Grande Maison, which stems from research undertaken by the Jaeger-LeCoultre laboratories to further enhance the performance of this complicated timepiece. This innovation will initially be available on the yellow-gold limited editions only.

Then there is the Master Compressor Diving GMT Lady Céramique. This comes with a new case that is slightly larger, measuring 39mm instead of 38, while its thickness has been reduced from 14.05 to 13.27mm. It is also carries the first black dial in the collection.

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