Jaeger-LeCoultre

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Breathe! Perpetual Time from Jaeger LeCoultre’s ATMOSpheric Clock!

[A collection of ATMOS clocks through the years. To the right, the original carrying case in which an ATMOS I was supplied].

It seems fitting, that in the rarefied mountain air, a clock that lives off variations in the atmosphere should find its home. Breathe in, breathe out: every moment, every second of your life. And yet when you finally stop, it is a strange thought that the ATMOS clock keeps going! There is something almost magical about the notion of a perpetual clock, that never powers down, that does not need winding, that breathes as we do and lives longer than we can! A perpetual machine that will outlive each of us, our grandchildren, and our great grandchildren. It is the very stuff of science fiction: perpetual machines! Nonetheless, in the Vallee de Joux, such machines have been brought to life for the past 75 years. It is perhaps the longest running production clock series in existence, certainly the most iconic, and even through the worst of the quartz crisis production of this clock did not stop. Its’ timeless appeal is both due to the concept of such a clock, but also the designs that Jaeger LeCoultre have produced over the decades. Today, demand for ATMOS clocks continues to grow and the market for secondhand ATMOS clocks has pushed auction prices higher.



[An original ATMOS I clock, carrying case, manual, and newspaper advertisement – that names Mappin and Webb as the supplying retailer]

JLC are no strangers to overcoming adversity through economic challenging times. For Jaeger LeCoultre, the 1920’s and 30’s (the inter-war years) were the “Brave New World” of horological mechanics. Only recently has the Manufacture surpassed what was achieved at that time. In a few years around the 1929 crash, Jaeger LeCoultre created three product lines that they still sell to this day: the 101 (and Duoplan) (http://jlc.watchprosite.com/show-forumpost/fi-2/pi-5440038/ti-808098/s-0/), the Reverso (http://jlc.watchprosite.com/show-forumpost/fi-2/pi-4375108/ti-684198/s-0/), and the ATMOS clock. The same iconic watches and clocks have helped restore the fortunes of the Manufacture after the quartz crisis had almost decimated the industry (http://jlc.watchprosite.com/?show=forumpost&fi=2&pi=5873708&ti=863148&s=). It is interesting to note that the production of the same lines never really went away, and with the ATMOS in particular, production continued (a little slower maybe, but it did continue). The innovations then, as the more recent innovations in the past decade, defined Jaeger LeCoultre as the most innovative, forward thinking, and accomplished watch and clock manufacturer. Not only were Jaeger LeCoultre the watchmakers’ watchmaker for base ebauche and finished movements, but were rightly seen as a manufacturer in their own right. What separated the ATMOS was the technology for the movement and the mechanics of the true perpetual motion clock: a mechanism that would usher in a world where machines would perpetually work, without maintenance, without pollution. If simply left alone, where it stood, and once properly regulated, the clock would tell the minutes, hours, days, years, and even centuries.



[ATMOS I clock designs from one of the first catalogues]

The ATMOS is the clock of Royalty, Presidents, Prime Ministers, and Popes; and has outlived them all. They may have had their place in time, but the ATMOS clock continues to measure the passage of time, each passing minute, one slow assured beat of the balance wheel after the next. The ATMOS clocks started up in 1930 have potentially outlived every dignitary that ever received one and are still ticking! So successful is the mechanism, that there are basically only two versions of the clock. The latter variant has been in place since 1938. The movement was, and is for that matter, that avant-garde.



[The cabinets at the ATMOS repair workshop at Jaeger LeCoultre] This message has been edited by 219 on 2013-12-15 14:53:55 This message has been edited by amanico on 2013-12-18 11:30:56