2010-08-27

Jaeger-LeCoultre Extreme Watches (book)

'Everything always begins with an adventure. The desire to discover, to overcome, to attain. How about setting off for a far-distant destination?... Wouldn’t it be great to climb right to the top of that mountain?...

Why not descend to the very depths of the ocean?... But adventure is not only about geography or sportsmanship. It can also be about inventing something truly novel, about creating, imagining, innovating.

This book is dedicated to all adventurers, explorers and other conquerors of the impossible. It tells the story of challenges, efforts and triumphs. It also tells of a key element in many such feats: time.' Jérôme Lambert, CEO, Jaeger-LeCoultre



From JLC There are dreams… and then there’s reality. Right from its origins, Jaeger-LeCoultre has consistently sought to submit its watches to tests even harsher than those of measuring and testing devices, by confronting them with real life. And much more besides…

The Manufacture has often entrusted its time measuring instruments to explorers, champions and adventurers, whose mission is to test them in the most extreme conditions of use, in moments when precision, resistance and performance are of vital importance.

Jaeger-LeCoultre has decided to bring together all these adventures, these heroes and these exceptional watches within a book based on an original concept. Page after page, readers are immersed into the heart of the various feats depicted and described, as well as into the core of the revolutionary mechanisms that have been making their mark on watchmaking history for over 170 years.

For Jaeger-LeCoultre, the adventure of extreme watches began in 1833 in an isolated Swiss valley, when Antoine LeCoultre and his watchmakers personally tested their creations featuring innovative technical solutions by climbing the highest peaks in the Alps. This was already a genuine challenge in an era when most watches never left the cosy comfort of a waistcoat pocket…

The following years and decades witnessed the emergence of a proud lineage of action oriented watches. Each brought a new function, an original technological feature, enhanced performance, water-resistance or reliability, steadily enriching the Jaeger-LeCoultre watchmaking heritage with an incomparable sum of know-how…



When the Nautilus submarine was first commissioned to slip under the ice pack in order to be the first to reach the North Pole in submerged mode, Jaeger-LeCoultre developed the Geophysic chronometer, equipped with a case impervious to magnetic fields.



When scuba diving became a leisure sport, Jaeger-LeCoultre invented the Memovox Deep Sea, the world’s first diver’s watch equipped with an alarm. When Emannuel Coindre set out to row solo across the North Pacific, he was wearing a Jaeger-LeCoultre Master Compressor Extreme World Chronograph.

When Valentino Rossi, the most gifted motorcycle racer of all time, hits the track, he does it with a Master Compressor Extreme W-Alarm on his wrist.



When Jaeger-LeCoultre checks the water resistance of the Master Compressor Diving GMT, the test takes place in real-life conditions at a depth of 1,000 metres.



When Aston Martin racing drivers take part in the Le Mans 24 Hours endurance race, they choose the AMVOX2 watch, the first pushpiece-free chronograph.

When three mountaineers wished to pay tribute to the most extreme watch ever developed and produced by Jaeger-LeCoultre, they took the Master Compressor Extreme LAB2 Tribute to Geophysic to the top of the world, in the Himalayas.

Jaeger-LeCoultre has chosen to present these feats, these adventures and these watches by providing a fascinating account of each in words and pictures. In this book infused with genuine passion, produced in cooperation with Stephan Ciejka, editor-in-chief of the Revue des Montres, watchmaking technology remains discreetly in the background in order to give pride of place to human beings, to dreams and to emotions.

Jaeger-LeCoultre, Extreme Watches for an Extreme World, an exclusive book dedicated to all lovers of fine watchmaking.

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