By Rebecca Doulton in Madrid
Jaeger-LeCoultre had a very pleasant surprise up its sleeve for the Watches&Wonders haute horlogerie salon taking place in Hong Kong. In addition to exhibiting its stunning artistic collection, known as Hybris Artistica, to the Asian markets, Daniel Riedo, CEO of the Swiss watchmaker and his team, has unveiled a new Jaeger-LeCoultre Rendez-Vous watch: a chiming beauty for women.
The Jaeger-LeCoultre Rendez-Vous Ivy Minute Repeater watch immediately seduces the eye with its snow-set diamond ivy leaves that swirl across the deep blue enamel dial, which is decorated with a sunburst guilloché motif. Renowned for its snow-setting technique, which emulates the beauty of freshly fallen snowflakes, artisans at Jaeger-LeCoultre have covered the bezel, the ivy leaves on the dial, the push piece, the lugs and the sides of the case and crown of the white gold case with a delicate mantle of 548 snowy diamonds.
But there is far more to this watch than meets the eye. This is, in fact, the first minute repeater designed exclusively for women by Jaeger-LeCoultre. And to show just how serious the manufacture is in investing in complications for women, the new Jaeger-LeCoultre Rendez-Vous Ivy Minute Repeater has not inherited a downsized men's calibre but has been endowed with a totally new calibre known as 942A.
Ten years in the making, the new calibre is an extremely accurate automatic movement beating at 28,000 vibrations per hour with a 43-hour power reserve, exclusively designed to fit in the extremely small - in the case of minute repeaters - 39mm case. The melody of the minute repeater is achieved thanks to the presence of two patented trebuchet hammers, which strike two crystal gongs, fine-tuned to replicate a warm, rich, feminine sound. To activate the minute repeater, a single push piece on the left side of the watch will chime the hours and the minutes on demand.
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