SIHH 2015: Jaeger-LeCoultre Adds Meteorite Dial To Master Calendar (Live Pics…)

Jaeger-LeCoultre embraces a familiar theme with its new Master Calendar. The brand’s astronomical complications are now exemplified by a mesmerizing meteorite dial. The new 2015 model retains the same layout, movement and dimensions as last year’s model, but with a modified dial and a handsome meteorite dial which endows this classic calendar watch with new personality. This is the first meteorite dial to be used within the context of a classic dress watch and an astronomical complication.

But a meteorite on a dial – could this be so? Where did Jaeger-LeCoultre find this piece of debris from our solar system to sit so elegantly on the Master Calendar’s dial? Estimated at millions or hundreds of millions of years, meteorites are very old stone indeed. Fascinating pieces which prompt the imagination, the origins of these meteorites might be traced to fragments from asteroids and even pieces of comets making their way through the solar system.

The meteorite that Jaeger-LeCoultre uses derives from a single stone which has been derived and registered in Sweden. It comes from the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter and transforms the usually classic dial of the Master Calendar into something avant-garde and unexpected. However, endowing the timepiece with such a stone is no easy feat. Its iron content makes it difficult to work with. It is therefore cut into several thin plates in a process involving countless precautions, until the exact plate corresponding to the demands imposed by Jaeger-LeCoultre is achieved. After a long and meticulous process it expresses its beauty within the elegant form of the Manufacture.

Apart from this new addition, the Master Calendar stays true to its form and displays the date, day, month and phases of the moon. The day of the week and the month are indicated in twin aperatures at 12 o’clock, while the perpetual calendar is displayed by means of a long hand-tipped with a red moon crescent that sweeps around a scale around the dial rim starting from 1 to 31. And all of this comes courtesy of the Jaeger-LeCoultre manufactured caliber 866 which beats away inside the watch giving life to this object of technical and artistic beauty. A desire for order and harmony govern the watch’s aesthetics featuring a 39 mm-diameter and a 10.6 mm-thick case designed to adapt to the curve of any wrist. The Master Calendar is offered in both 18-carat pink gold and steel with a polished finish.

Photo Credit: Haute Time. Watch this space for more information…