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keyboard instruments and, finally,
watch components of the highest precision.
In the town of Le Sentier, in 1833, the LeCoultre
watch manufacture began and since then, the company has consistently
made watchmaking history.
The Millionometer of 1844 was the first instrument capable of
measuring components to the nearest micron - a millionth of a meter.
LeCoultre became an early source for complicated movements, creating
repeaters, chronographs and calendars. In 1847, Antoine LeCoultre
developed a crown winding system that also set the time.
By 1899, LeCoultre had become the Vallée de Joux's leading
manufacturer. In 1903, a son of the original owner entered into a
business relationship in Paris with the chronometer-maker Edmond
Jaeger. This partnership opened the way into the luxury market for
LeCoultre and resulted in the name of Jaeger-LeCoultre, which was to
become synonymous with high-grade watchmaking.
Within a few decades, LeCoultre & Co. had become a leading
watchmaker, delivering an increasingly complicated succession of
movements. In 1890, it produced a range of 125 different movements,
and, in 1903, its workshops unveiled the slimmest movement for
pocket watches. At 1.38 mm thick, it remains an unbroken
record.
As wristwatches superseded pocket watches, LeCoultre found new
territory for innovation. The tiny wristwatches of the Art Déco era
were fitted with the thin-level rectangular douplan movement,
invented in 1925. It was followed, in 1929, by Calibre 101, still
the smallest mechanical watch movement ever made and still in
production.
In 1928, a revolutionary clock appeared. The Atmos was the only
clock that derives its energy from the slightest temperature changes
of the surrounding air.
The Reverso watch, which was introduced in 1931, is among the
world's best-known watches. Originally conceived as a sporting
watch, with the idea that reversing it would protect the face and
glass, it has entered into the history of the decorative arts
movement.
The fifties and sixties saw a number of innovative wristwatches. The
Geomatic had a chronometer movement; the Geophysic had anti-magnetic
protection. The Calibre 497 automatic movement needed no winding
crown in the Futurematic watch of 1953 and the Memovox of 1956 was
the first automatic alarm wristwatch.
After the explosion in quartz movements that nearly put an end to
mechanical watches, the 1980s saw resurgence in new ideas from
Jaeger-leCoultre, resulting in a series of groundbreaking
watchmaking achievements.
Today the company is part of a large luxury goods conglomerate, but
has retained its individuality and still makes some of its most
popular models, such as the famous Reverso. “This is its most
famous style,” says Peter. Today, over 70 year later, it is still
a top seller, and has been produced with various refinements and
decorative variations.
“It says something great about a watch company that it can produce
the same watch uninterrupted for so long and still sell for top
prices,” says Peter.
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