When we visit factories for our reports, dozens and dozens of photos are taken, which of course are not all used for publication (for obvious reasons of space). The remainder go into our archive, also for future use. Going through the archive, today we have tracked down some images that deserve to be shown. They date back to June last year and depict one of the very first Reverso Grande Complication à Triptyque made, photographed right on the bench of the watchmaker who was assembling and testing it. For a description of the watch, we quote what we published last year in L'Orologio, when we included the model among the Superstars of the Geneva Show:
"The Reverso Grande Complication à Triptyque displays the indications, corresponding to its no less than 18 complications, on three dials: two on the respective faces of the famous tilting case and one inside the frame supporting the case itself (to which the strap is attached). This is the first time that such a solution has been adopted on the Reverso. To better understand all the indications provided, let us examine the three dials separately.
The formal simplicity of the main dial is interrupted only by the opening in the bottom right-hand corner, which reveals something more than an ordinary tourbillon. The one-minute rotating cage, in fact, incorporates a new escapement, developed by Jaeger-LeCoultre and derived from the "à détente" escapement of marine chronometers (the same one studied by George Daniels to develop Omega's co-axial escapement). The new escapement system has been called the "isometric helix" escapement and features so little sliding that lubrication of the surfaces is unnecessary. Due to the weak interaction forces between the balance-spring and the other components, the escape wheel and the latter's locking arm were manufactured from monocrystalline silicon, which has the necessary elastic and tribological properties, but weighs considerably less than brass. Consider that thanks to this solution, the overall weight of the tourbillon (consisting of the titanium cage and escapement) is a mere 0.29 grams. Returning to the main dial of the watch, this one features the hour, minute and twenty-four-hour displays at two o'clock.
On the opposite side of the case, visible by tipping it onto its support, is the mobile sky chart (boreal or austral, at the customer's request), together with an indication of sidereal time, the zodiacal calendar (i.e. the position of the Sun in relation to the elliptical, delimited by the constellations of the zodiac), the rising and rising of the Sun (at a given latitude), and the equation of time. The support of the Reverso Grande Complication à Triptyque houses the final gem of this outstanding example of haute horlogerie: the world's thinnest perpetual calendar mechanism, just 1.7 millimetres thick, with retrograde date display and moon phases."
In the photo, next to the partially assembled parts of the Reverso Grande Complication à Triptyque, another (round) watch can be seen: this is the prototype used to test the Triptyque's escapement before the realisation of the multi-complication.
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