Jaeger-LeCoultre Master Grande Tradition Gyrotourbillon 3 Jubilee

It is no exaggeration to say that the Master Grande Tradition Gyrotourbillon 3 Jubilee represents the investment of the Jaeger-LeCoultre manufacture’s entire expertise in a single watch.

Unveiled at SIHH 2013 to mark the maison’s 180th anniversary, the Gyrotourbillon 3 is nothing less than a showcase of Jaeger-LeCoultre’s in-house mastery of rare arts, engineering muscle, and boundless imagination.

In commercial terms – especially in this fast-paced era of marketing – an eternity separates the 2013 Geneva Salon of High Horology from the present moment. Pre-SIHH 2017 releases are in full swing, and a collection of thoughts regarding a years-old model, no matter how scintillating, may seem curious.

But the gestation of grand complications moves on its own time scale, and enthusiasts with realistic designs on the 75-unit run of the Gyrotourbillon 3 only now are beginning to take delivery; for one week, iW Magazine counted itself among the fortunate few. Through a week of on-the-wrist trials, iW Magazine strove to test Jaeger-LeCoultre’s bold assertion that the roughly $540,000 US Gyrotourbillon 3 is as viable a “daily driver” as the brand’s bread-and-butter steel Master models.

An introduction of the Gyrotourbillon 3 would be remiss to exclude a measure of historical context. The watch is the follow-up to the 2008 Reverso Gyrotourbillon 2, itself a sequel to the 2004 Gyrotourbillon. All three watches are the result of work by then-JLC engineer/watchmaker Eric Coudray.

Although neither the first poly-axial tourbillon nor the only ones available in the current market, each of the Gyrotourbillon watches pushed the boundaries of what JLC could accomplish, and the central tenet of real-world durability helped to set these watches apart from their few peers. Each of the Gyrotourbillon models belongs to Jaeger-LeCoultre’s Hybris Mechanica line of engineering exceptions; the Gyro 3 is the tenth of this series that commenced with the original Gyrotourbillon.

Each Gyrotourbillon 3 is built around its caliber 176 manually wound movement. The design of the watch opens its dial to minimize the civil time display in the service of aesthetic impact. At six o’clock, the gyrations of the flying tourbillon present a mesmerizing vision of grace and complexity. Two arcs are traced simultaneously; one circuit requites sixty seconds, and the other requires 24.

Beyond visual theatrics, the goal of this arrangement is precision. By adding additional orientations with respect to gravity, Jaeger-LeCoultre strives to recapture the equalizing effect on rate that Abraham Louis Breguet achieved with his original single-axis pocket watch tourbillon of 1795.

Within the cage, the 14-karat blued-gold balance oscillates at a beat rate of 21,600 VpH rate. Gyrations notwithstanding, the balance assembly itself of is a source of spectacle thanks to a spherical hairspring – the wristwatch industry’s first. While previous Jaeger-LeCoultre tourbillon cages employed titanium to minimize their mass, the Gyrotourbillon employs even lighter – and more challenging to finish – aluminum alloys. Despite the size and complexity of the tourbillon assembly, a large mainspring barrel endows the caliber 176 with a practical power reserve of 48 hours.

By itself, the Gyrotourbillon could have anchored this anniversary model with no sense of lost opportunity or unfulfilled purpose. But Jaeger-LeCoultre engineers decided to add a monopusher chronograph with instantaneous-jump digital minutes. Of the 592 parts that comprise the caliber, approximately 200 are dedicated to the chronograph.

The digital minutes display, which was launched first on the Master Compressor Extreme Lab 2 of 2010, dominates the sunburst silver sub-dial at nine o’clock. A traditional column wheel function selector with black-polished cap sits above the chronograph display; a vertical clutch engagement starts the chronograph without jump, stops its without stagger, and allows continuous running of the mechanism without additional wear on the movement. Beneath the chronograph dial, the levers of the minute jumper can be seen inaction when the device is engaged.