Focus Magazine of SWFL Cheers To Your Style | Page 49
Ever since the 16th century, ladies’ watches have
delighted in reinventing the rules of the game of
seduction: exploring the full spectrum from invisible
to dazzling and from concealment to revealment,
while engaged in a perpetual quest to strike the
perfect balance between beauty, refinement and
telling the time. Jaeger-LeCoultre has enriched this
tradition by creating “secret” watches with covers,
as well as swivelling and pivoting models, rings and
pendants, covering a range of styles streatching
from the purity of Art Deco to the most expressive
floral motifs.
1954 Jaeger-LeCoultre Ladies' watch
Radiating ultimate aesthetic appeal and supreme
elegance, these creations unite the twin arts of
exceptional watchmaking and fine jewellery. Such
masterpieces could only be created in the workshops of the Manufacture that so fully masters the
subtle intricacies of mechanical perfection and the
most exquisitely delicate gem-setting techniques.
Over the centuries and in step with changing dress codes, women
have determined the aesthetic of time and the ways in which it
is worn. They have adopted all manner of innovations and horological complications. They have combined beauty and perfection,
thereby enabling watchmaking to draw nurture from the art of
jewellery and goldsmithing. Whether hung from a long sautoir
necklace, attached to the belt by a “châtelaine” chain, concealed
within a brooch or a snuffbox, watches have displayed the multiple, ever-changing and secret facets of their nature – very much
like women themselves. And when 18th and 19th century customs held that ladies had no need to measure time or to enquire
about the time when in company, the dance of the hours was
delicately cloaked in pearls and precious stones.
Jaeger-LeCoultre has always lavished special attention on feminine timepieces, in terms of both their aesthetic and their mechanism. In particular, this tradition dates back to the smallest
round movements with an extremely small diameter, such as the
LeCoultre Calibre 7HP created in the 1880s, and which equipped
V