Atmos Birth Date
Atmos Birth Date par Jaeger-LeCoultre
The start of a wonderful collection.
The daringly innovative Atmos Birth Date embodies an idea destined for a fine future, since
the Atmos clock, an eternally youthful young lady born 80 years ago in the Jaeger-LeCoultre
workshops, takes on a tender, mischievous appearance while losing nothing of its seductive
appeal. While the horological icon with the almost perpetual mechanism continues to count
off the hours and minutes of the world's most eminent figures, it now turns into a wonderful
gift when the time comes to celebrate a happy event and, according to a well-established
tradition, comes in pastel pink or blue versions. For the first time within this rich collection,
its base is adorned with the name of the newborn child that it will faithfully accompany
through all stages of his or her life, because the Atmos movement continues to represent a
challenge to mechanical laws and to the ephemeral nature of human accomplishments.
Youthful modernity
With its entirely transparent glass cabinet, the Atmos Birth Date keeps silent and benevolent
watch over the destiny of the child for whom it faithfully marks off the hours, days and years. In
addition to the first name, family name and date of birth engraved on the base, it is also possible
to have the exact day of the birth appear on the month disc. The official gift presented by the
Swiss Federal government to its illustrious guests thus reprises and extends its role as a symbol
destined to witness life's most meaningful moments. While a certain undeniable gravitas befits
this mechanism that makes light of the passing of time as if by magic, the designers of the
Manufacture have successfully endowed the Atmos Birth Date with a distinctly modern touch,
imbuing their creation with a refreshingly innocent air. Delicately inlaid with pink or blue
mother-of-pearl, the twelve segments of the hour circle feature the infinitely repeated name
Atmos in a motif interrupted only by the succession of Roman numerals. Meanwhile, the moonphase
display features a disc of which the upper part appears at 6 o'clock, above the Atmos and
Jaeger-LeCoultre inscriptions. The Atmos Birth Date also exists in two jewellery variations, set
with ten diamonds on the moon disc and nine diamonds on the dial, complete with a motherof-
pearl inlaid hour circle and base. The latter exceptional creations, which will be issued in two
limited series of just eight - eight blue and eight pink - are a fabulous illustration of the famous
proverb expressed by the French poet and playwright Corneille, who wrote that value/valour
does not wait upon the passing of years.
In the avant-garde for the past 80 years
The origins of the Atmos clock date back to 1928, when it was invented by the Neuchâtel-born
engineer Jean-Léon Reutter, who had been fascinated since his earliest youth by the myth of
perpetual motion. His incredible mechanism, based on a system that is still in the avant-garde
today, was subsequently taken up by Jacques-David LeCoultre. He called upon the full
resources of his watch Manufacture to develop the project and bring it to the series-production
stage. A splendid representative of the luxury clock segment, the Atmos has lent its unfailingly
accurate and serene presence to the reflective moments of such eminent figures as Sir Winston
Churchill, J.F. Kennedy, General de Gaulle and HM King Juan Carlos 1st.
80 years after its invention, the operating principle of the Atmos remains unique in the world.
The clock draws the energy required to operate from tiny variations in temperature resulting in
the contraction or expansion of a gas contained within an airtight bellows that dilates and
retracts in turn. The incessant repetition of this phenomenon can be compared with breathing,
and the to-and-fro motion winds a barrel that drives a mechanism requiring an exceptionally
small amount of energy - since a one-degree variation is enough to keep it running for 48
hours.
An extraordinary wager on the future
Nonetheless, this prodigiously accurate mechanism could not possibly beat to the cadence of
our hectic modern lives, and the annular balance of the clock, which is perfectly visible through
the glass cabinet, performs just two majestic vibrations per minute. Thus, by virtue of a modusoperandi governed by the supreme principle of economy, an Atmos consumes 250 times less
energy than a standard mechanical wristwatch. Or, to give another eloquent example, it would
take no less than 60 million Atmos clocks to light up a single 15-watt bulb. This sparing attitude
makes the Atmos clock the least energy-consuming mechanism ever invented. The privilege of
slowness also lies in the almost total absence of wear and thus aging of this mechanism that
appears to literally live on air and which, 80 years after its birth, is still the closest any object has
ever come to perpetual motion.
In an era when humankind is facing the stark limits of available energy resources, the fabulous
operating principle of the Atmos certainly shows the path to follow for the little girls and boys
who will become tomorrow's engineers, inventors and discoverers. And doubtless many of
them will acknowledge, a few decades from now, that the Atmos Birth Date has faithfully
served them as an inexhaustible source of wonderment and inspiration.
Atmos Birth Date: technical characteristics
Movement:
Mechanical, almost perpetual Jaeger-LeCoultre Calibre 564, crafted, assembled and decorated
by hand
Functions:hours, minutes,months,moon phases
Dial: featuring mother-of-pearl inlays for the limited series of 8 each
Hands: dauphines
Cabinet: transparent
References:
Q5145205 (pink version)
Q5145206 (blue version)
Available exclusively from Jaeger-LeCoultre Boutiques, two limited series of 8 each
Q5145203 (pink version)
Q5145204 (blue version)
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