Jaeger-LeCoultre’s Thin Blue Line: 3 New Master Ultra Thin Enamel Models

Like its Richemont stablemate Vacheron Constantin, Jaeger-LeCoultre added several striking blue-dialed timepieces to its existing collections at SIHH 2019, only to have them largely overshadowed by ultra-complicated talking pieces that grabbed the lion’s share of attention from the watch cognoscenti (in Vacheron’s case, the high-horology headliner in question was the Traditionnelle Twin Beat Perpetual Calendar; for JLC, it was the Master Grande Tradition Gyrotourbillon Westminster Perpetuél). In pursuit of remedying that oversight, we’re flashing back to January’s watch salon in Geneva to delve into these azure-appointed models and give them their due. My colleague Logan R. Baker covered Vacheron’s 2019 releases here; today we take a look at Jaeger-LeCoultre’s Master Ultra-Thin Enamel models.

The collection consists of three pieces featuring three high-end complications. The first, the Master Ultra Thin Moon Enamel, pictured below and covered extensively in our pre-SIHH article here, has a 39-mm white-gold case, a blue enamel dial with a hand-turned guilloche finish, and a redesigned moon-phase display with a perfectly round and polished white disk that comes into view in its entirety during the full moon. Its movement is JLC’s self-winding Caliber 925/2, ensconced inside the slender 10.04-mm case. Limited to 100 pieces, it retails for $35,800.

The Master Ultra-Thin Tourbillon Enamel (below) is limited to just 50 pieces and boasts a new, self-winding, tourbillon-equipped in-house movement and a redesigned date counter. This one’s white gold case is 40 mm in diameter and a slightly more portly 12.13 mm thick. The hand-guillochéd, blue enamel dial is dominated by a 12 o’clock subdial, with a 1-31 date scale indicated by a small hand, and a large tourbillon aperture at 6 o’clock. The well-balanced ensemble is complemented by slender Dauphine hour and minute hands indicating the time on thin, faceted indices. Behind a sapphire caseback is the Jaeger-LeCoultre’s Caliber 978, a somewhat rare example of a self-winding tourbillon movement, “reconceived both technically and aesthetically,” in the brand’s words, with sunray finishing on the plates and a gold oscillating weight. The watch is priced at $88,500.

Rounding out the trio, pictured below, is the Master Ultra Thin Perpetual Enamel, outfitted with Jaeger-LeCoultre’s automatic, in-house Caliber 868, which drives the timepiece’s array of perpetual calendar indications, displayed on the blue enamel guilloché dial in an original and delicately balanced fashion. The day is at 3 o’clock, the date at 9 o’clock, the month and year at 12 o’clock, and the moon-phase display at 6 o’clock. The moon-phase itself features a new design, with a polished, starry sky and an engraved counter that follows the waxing and waning of the lunar disk. The elecgantly thin hour appliqués have been lengthened for this new model to reflect the radiating lines of the guilloché motif. Visible behind a sapphire caseback, the decorated movement stores a power reserve of 70 hours. The Master Ultra Thin Perpetual Enamel is limited to 100 pieces and is priced at $55,000.