Here is coming the first sight of the spring. This is not SIHH yet but a first preview is always a pleasure.
Please take some time to discover the new Master Compressor Extreme, the second model in the heavy duty range from Jaeger-LeCoultre.
You can’t live just with love and fresh water, or GCT and black dial Master Hometimes. You have to go out hunting, worldwide and early.
In France we say that the world belongs to those that wake up early (that may even be a title for a James Bond Movie).
The new Jaeger-LeCoultre Master Compressor Extreme W-Alarm (standing for World Alarm) is here:
This is not just a strong design. This is a strong design that you can get used to. At first sight to be honest I didn’t like it but then after a few days it grew up on me.
This is not just a large watch. This is a large watch at 46.3mm, a size necessitated by the shock-absorbing and interchangeable wristband system case already seen in the EWC.
This is not just a new movement. The JLC caliber 912 brings us two useful functions. The first is the instant reading of the 24 time zones on the outside city disc and the rotating 24 hour ring, like already seen in the Master World Geographic.
The second function is the heir of the Memovox, the new version of the alarm function by Jaeger-LeCoultre. The new movement is more than just a revamped version of the former automatic alarm calibers by JLC. This is a 36.2mm movement, 7.8mm thick, regulated at 28 800 vph, with a 45 hour power reserve. It is quite obviously free-sprung, with a variable-inertia balance. It has an unidirectional winding through an oscillating weight on ceramic ball-bearings. This is the standard “autotractorization” of the Master range of the last years.
But you get more this time. Instead of the traditional case back fixed gong you get a special secret alloy gong that surrounds the whole movement and is fixed by two pins to the case middle.
When the use of the alarm function of the former Memovox calibers was sometimes unvoluntary, you now get a start/stop button. A double push piece located at ten around the city crown allows the bearer to decide whether to start or stop the alarm function. Press on the lower part (under the crown) and the alarm is prevented from striking. Push the upper part and the alarm is activated, waiting for the wake up time.
Wake up / alarm time is settled through two juxtaposed discs visible through a window at 9. Alarm time can be selected in 5 minutes intervals.
Finally you also get a fast adjustment date at 3. Adjustment is made through the alarm function crown, making disappear what was IMO the main weakness of the former automatic alarm caliber.
The watch will be available in different versions, the standard steel and titanium with two leather and rubber straps or a steel bracelet and a rubber strap, or limited series of 946 “46” full titanium with two leather and rubber straps or 246 “46” pink gold and titanium with a leather strap and a rubber strap.
The “46” limited models dedicated to the famous motorbike racer Valentino Rossi get a black-laquered engraved number “46” and engraved Valentino Rossi signature on the case-back and a special coloured 24 hour ring. The “46” full titanium model also gets a yellow transferred luminescent 46 number in the dial centre.
Standard steel and titanium models will show a two-tone red/grey 24 hour ring.
Wait and see
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