Jaeger-LeCoultre

Summer time. The watch industry is closed at this time of the year. We've had some rest to try to digest the spring new models, even if many have not seen them yet. Next step will be to see the new watches arrive in the stores and try to find homes to live their lives. Anybody wants to volunteer?

I thought that would be the right time to think about what is true or not, to acknowledge what gives value to our common passion for horology. I don't mean to be general but just to share some thoughts about Jaeger-LeCoultre.

Let's say that this subject begun end of last November in Paris, in the conference rooms of the palace Hotel Bristol on the Faubourg Saint Honore.

Jerome Lambert was there. He was not alone of course. Yves Meylan from Jaeger-LeCoultre France and Marc Frisanco from Richemont were there too, among others.

Mr Frisanco is in charge of Intellectual Property for the Richemont brands, i.e. his work among other duties is to fight counterfeiting.

The subject of the conference was "Innovation and Tradition", with a focus on the luxury industry. Out of the watch industry, other examples were brought by the luxury hotel industry, with the Hotel Bristol manager, and the French company Hediard represented by his vice-president. The conference was organized by the Wine and Business Club and attended by more than a hundred business men.

Seemingly the tradition was that night defined as the DNA of watchmaking, while the innovation is what is done of this DNA, how it is expressed. Innovation on the company side, to develop itself in the changing distribution channels against the evolving competition, but also to some extent innovation from the customer side, with new markets opening and expanding in the last years.

Jerome Lambert reminded that the nearly 1 000 people of Jaeger-LeCoultre cumulate 9 000 years of experience. That's probably one of the secrets of the alchemy: how to always do the same thing differently, or how to do different things the same way! What is JLC?

Clearly innovation, if not always invention, was a major objective in the last years at JLC. We saw the large date, the 1000 Hours testing, the Gyrotourbillon, the Master Minute Repeater, the Reverso Grande Complication, the Atmos a Regulateur, the Compressor keys, the Amvox2, the diving range, the Duometre, the snow setting and rock setting of stones, the Extreme Lab, and many other aspects I forget in this list.

While some are entitled to think that Jaeger-LeCoultre has derived from its classical approach and forgotten the traditionalist consumers, another point of view reveals a great inventiveness that transformed itself in successful sales. What other company can propose such a wide range of watches, from the simple and traditional Master Ultra Thin to the Reverso Grande Complication, with so many intermediary steps between these two?

I personally don't like all the new offerings of the last years of course, but there are so many new babes for me and I see so different tastes even among this forum readership that I'm not worried for Jaeger-LeCoultre. They are doing a great job at a time when I feel that many are choosing the easy way to cash milking.

So JLC is an innovation and invention company. This is allowed by several facts: an integrated production for a true manufacture, a renewed but experienced, motivated and talented staff, a history and a spirit of invention, an increasing and thirsty market and last but not least a daring and demanding leadership.  

Jaeger-LeCoultre is not only writing today's pages of the Horology story, but also is already experiencing tomorrow's directions. The Master Compressor Extreme Lab is a very appealing concept and reality watch, but also the very first implementation of many aspects that will change the kind of our watches. Don't hesitate to look back to it to prepare yourself for next year SIHH!

As there is no real watch competition out of the competition for market shares, It seems to me that Jaeger-LeCoultre plays against its past to get better. Racing improves the breed, say the British racers. That's quite true with the Aston martin partnership that brought to the range the Polaris daughter Amvox1, a potential intermediary step before the real thing, but more importantly the Amvox2, the distress of my sleepless nights. We will quite probably see an Amvox3, and why not an Amvox Lab!

The Extreme Lab is to the JLC range what the DBR9 is for Aston Martin. An extreme watch for extreme situations.

We will see before that the coming Amvox DBS, a mere secret named after the new Aston Martin DBS seen in the last James Bond movie « Casino Royale". The New DBS (the car) will replace to some extent the glorious Vanquish that brought back AML to its rank. The DBS should reveal to be an improved, lightweight, more powerful DB9 with a stronger styling.

No doubt though that some hard core AML owners will choose the Duometre a Chronographe as their time instrument. That technical and innovative yet somewhat nicely traditional pink goldie will find itself at its place in Goodwood or its counterplaces.

Fortunately there will be some more affordable choices for the younger audience with the just beginning development of the Squadra range.

While a wider range would probably not be a priority for the new diving models they will also be a striking aspect of this year's examples of innovation from MJLC.    

So what Jaeger-LeCoultre gave us this year is in my opinion value, watches that should live up to Jaeger-LeCoultre's symbolic name. As Marc Frisanco explained in Paris counterfeiters concentrate on the symbol of the name or iconic styling, without value. But when design and development teams of Jaeger-LeCoultre create a new watch it seems that the brand name is the only aspect that is written in marble. Their work brings back the DNA in very variable ways because all the strengths of JLC are expressed in the final product range!

Let's get some rest now to prepare for what is next, another baby from the design and technical duo, from the various craftmakers of JLC.

Dje