The Jaeger-LeCoultre Gyrotourbillon Westminster is worthy of a king

Posted by lifata on December 15th, 2023

A performance of great caliber

When Jaeger-LeCoultre presented the Gyrotourbillon 1 in 2004, the watch world spoke of a watchmaking sensation. The Jaeger-LeCoultre Gyrotourbillon Westminster minute repeater can do the same. The basic function of the gyrotourbillon has remained the same. By moving in all directions, two ultra-light bogies compensate for the negative effects of gravity on the accuracy of this timepiece in the different positions on the wrist.

However, the debut of the Gyrotourbillon 1 was quite a while ago. Logically, the employees of the Jaeger-LeCoultre Manufactory, founded in 1833, have not put their hands down since then. Over the years, two further versions of this Swiss luxury watch replicas uk were created: 2008 brought the Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso Gyrotourbillon 2, 2013 the Jaeger-LeCoultre Master Grande Tradition Gyrotourbillon 3 Jubilee and 2016 the Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso Tribute Gyrotourbillon.

The fourth Gyrotourbillon represents the current crowning achievement in terms of difficulty. This is already indicated by the demanding name: Jaeger-LeCoultre Master Grande Tradition Gyrotourbillon Westminster Perpétuel. A name like noble title of the Tudors from the 11th century. It shows straight away that the mechanics housed in the white gold case have a lot to offer.

Jaeger-LeCoultre Gyrotourbillon Westminster

The in-house caliber 184 with manual winding and 50 hours of power autonomy immediately causes quite a stir on the wrist, both visually and acoustically. The tourbillon, which continues to rotate spherically, immediately catches the eye. The technicians managed to further reduce its dimensions and height. In this way, the entire fake watch is significantly less bulky on the back of the hand. The naturally continuously decreasing torque of the spring accumulator is counteracted by a well thought-out constant force drive. A pre-tensioned spring supplies fresh energy to the gear regulator every minute. The minute hand of this movement also jumps accordingly.

In addition to the said rotation, the spectrum of complications includes a perpetual calendar with a jumping date display as well as indications of the day of the week, month and the entire year. It can be easily adjusted using the crown. Once you overshoot the target in the heat of the moment, you go backwards again. At the push of a button, the minute repeater comes into action.

The control mechanism for the minute strike is coupled to the intermediate winding to equalize the mainspring torque and the jumping minute hand. A clever solution. This eliminates errors when triggering the striking mechanism between minutes.

Big Ben minute repeater

With the melody of London's famous Big Ben chime, the quarter hours are acoustically represented. This construction of the sounding timepiece is called a so-called carillon. In contrast to conventional constructions, where there is silence after the hour, in this case the sound sequence can be heard four times.

A sophisticated mechanism counteracts unpleasant pauses in the course of the complex percussion. Despite this overwhelming wealth of watchmaking mechanics, the shell only measures 43 millimeters. Its overall height is also just 14.08 millimeters. Of course, rudimentary protection against moisture is also essential for this watchmaking masterpiece. The Jaeger-LeCoultre Gyrotourbillon Westminster is therefore waterproof up to three bar pressure.