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In December 2011 00/24 WatchWorld had the exclusive premiere of the impressive Jaeger-LeCoultre Duomètre a Sphérotourbillon. Stéphane Belmont, International Marketing Director of Jaeger-LeCoultre, presented the watch at the manufacture in La Vallee-du-Joux. The Duomètre à Sphérotourbillon is equipped with the Dual-Wing concept, a revolutionary mechanical movement, featuring two separate and independent mechanisms, each with its own source of energy, housed within a single case: one of them responsible for the powering the time indications, and the other for driving an additional function.

The Dual-Wing concept is made to precise the indication of time, because the watch is free from the effects of vertical gravity due to the fact that the tourbillon never makes the same movement. The Sphérotourbillon is the first tourbillon watch adjustable to only ½ second.

A traditional tourbillon, initially developed for pocket watches, does not serve to compensate for the effects of gravity in ALL positions. Jaeger-LeCoultre created an additional axis to achieve a three-dimensional rotation movement. The result: a tourbillon that’s more effective in all positions that a wrist watch may adopt. Besides that, the tourbillon also spins around a second axis, inclined at 20 degrees (the same position as the Earth) angle. The first axis has 1 rotation per 15 seconds, the second axis has 1 rotation per 30 seconds. This combination of both axis and the fast rotation serves to free the watch from the effects of gravity. Only the tourbillon consist of 91 pieces. The tourbillon carriage is made of titanium, so it weighs only 0.518 grams. The diameter is 11.50 mm.

 

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The watchmakers of Jaeger-LeCoultre are also the first ones that gives the user the possibility to stop the seconds hand and bring it back to zero in order to perform an ultra-accurate time setting. A push-piece at 2 o’clock serves to bring the small seconds hand positioned beneath the tourbillon back to zero, according to the flyback principle. One special feature is that it does not halt the operation of the regulating organ. It has no influence on the function of tourbillon, so the speed of the balance wheel remains constant and the small seconds hand begins running again instantly.

Besides the two brains of the watch and a high-tech tourbillon, Jaeger-LeCoultre has spent considerable time to the design of the watch. When looking to the symmetrical case-back, you see calibre 382. The hand made bridges are made of non-treaded nickel silver, that gives the parts a silver/yellow glow. The parts are decorated with sun-ray paterns. The 42mm case is 14.1 mm thick, that’s only 0.6 mm (!) thicker than the predecessors in the Duomètre line. The finely grained dial shows you the hours, minutes, seconds and jumping stop seconds with the zero/reset system, date, age and phase of the moon (for both hemispheres) and the 50-hour power reserve.

The watch, in pink gold, is available for 220.000 euro’s. There will be also a limited edition in platinum, available in only 75 pieces.