By Rebecca Doulton
The ladies' Rendez-Vous collection of Jaeger-LeCoultre watches was first introduced in 2012, with models ranging from practical everyday companions to complications and bejewelled timepieces. The latest member, the Rendez-Vous Ivy Secret, continues the Swiss manufacturer’s tradition of miniaturisation with a high jewellery masterpiece packed with 304 diamonds, and that magical allure that only secret watches can transmit.
Since the 1840s, Jaeger-LeCoultre has perfected the art of miniaturising movements - a skill particularly appreciated in the creation of feminine timepieces, resulting in some of the most refined watches for women secretly hidden inside pendants and rings.
The domed cover of the Rendez-Vous Ivy Secret watch is set with brilliant, baguette and marquise-cut diamonds arranged in a floral design. By lifting the cover, the secret dial is revealed, decorated with a hand-engraved and painted ivy leaf on a mother-of-pearl background, with a double row of chatons making up the bracelet.
Powered by a miniature manual-winding movement - a successor to Jaeger’s famous 1929 calibre 101 weighing just one gram, and the same movement used inside the watch Elizabeth II wore to her coronation in 1953 - these exceptional new Jaeger-LeCoultre watches are the belle of the Rendez-Vous ball.
Last year, Jaeger-LeCoultre unveiled the Rendez-Vous Ivy Minute Repeater - a watch made exclusively for women, requiring the development of a new calibre from the manufacture to chime the time on demand in a 39mm case. Not only did it sound beautiful, but the blue dial decorated with diamond-encrusted ivy leaves seduced the sight.
Read more about the Rendez-Vous Ivy Minute Repeater here
This year's Rendez-Vous Ivy Minute Repeater watches for women have exchanged the minute repeater for a magical whirling tourbillon, and the background of the dial is a rich plum colour decorated with a guilloché pattern. Emanating from the diamond-encircled tourbillon at 6 o’clock, the ivy leaves creep across the cover of the dial in a slightly lighter shade of translucent engraved enamel, allowing a glimpse of the numbers 3, 9 and 12. The 39mm white gold case is also set with diamonds and houses Jaeger-LeCoultre’s automatic calibre 978, and is attached to the wrist with a satin strap.
