Jaeger-LeCoultre Master Ultra Thin & Master Ultra Thin Date

Vivid expressions of watchmaking minimalism

The philosophy behind the Master Ultra Thin line is based on providing a contemporary interpretation of one of the technical feats most admired by watchmakers and appreciated by connoisseurs: ultra-thin movements. For over a century, the Manufacture Jaeger-LeCoultre has achieved undisputed mastery in this particularly difficult field. Appearing in a diameter suited to all wrists and in keeping with the principles of the Master Ultra Thin line, the new models provide the essential functions of a classically elegant timepiece in an entirely pared-down version or accompanied by a useful complication.

On both versions, the dial features dauphine hands for the hours and minutes, with applied hour-markers interspersed with four powdered dots. The Jaeger-LeCoultre signature at 12 o’clock is topped by the JLC emblem, while the small seconds appear in an subdial at 6 o’clock. On the gold version, the dial adopts a warm eggshell white shade that makes a perfect match with the pink gold case; while the steel model features a sunburst silver-toned dial sprinkled with polished rhodiumed hour-markers. Both are teamed with an alligator leather strap – secured by a pink gold pin buckle in the first instance, and a steel folding clasp in the latter.

The automatic Jaeger-LeCoultre Calibre 896 features all the qualities of resistance, performance and precision one expects from a Manufacture-made movement, expressed in a concentrated mode since it is a mere 3.98 millimetres thin. A genuine tour de force for a mechanism comprising 223 parts. Its balance beats at a rate of 28,800 vibrations per hour.

The Master Ultra Thin watch with its new case measures a total 7.58 mm thin, enabling the designers of the Manufacture to exalt the kind of pure beauty that was formerly the exclusive preserve of manually-wound timepieces. And since the circumstances of modern life sometimes involve facing unexpected situations, it is water-resistant to a depth of 50 metres.

The classic elegance of the Master Ultra Thin Date is destined to find its way unscathed through time. Day after day, year after year, each time the hour hand completes two full turns of the dial, the date window will display a new number. Nonetheless, the impressive purity of its design is not the only guarantee of durability for this model, since this noble mission is shared by the automatic Jaeger-LeCoultre Calibre 899 with its legendary precision and reliability. Its balance beats at the rate of 28,800 vibrations per hour, while the 22-carat gold oscillating weight segment that winds the mechanism with each wrist movement, glows with the warm radiance of gold through the sapphire-topped transparent case-back.

Before setting off upon the journey of a lifetime, the Master Ultra Thin Date further requires the watch connoisseur to perform the impatiently and pleasurably anticipated ritual of securing it to the wrist with the pink gold pin buckle – thereby joining the two parts of the alligator leather strap and sealing the destiny of an eternally seductive timepiece.

The curtain can now fall; the two new watches from the Master Ultra Thin line have already left the stage to make their way to town. Appearing in turn through chance encounters, special occasions, evenings at the theatre, professional appointments or pleasurable leisure hours, each embodies a stirring homage to precision and elegance, longevity and slenderness – a asset of qualities brilliantly and passionately cultivated for more than 180 years by the Grande Maison in the Vallée de Joux.