Jaeger-LeCoultre's Master Ultra Thin Moon. Now in Gold and Blue
Blue and gold: a classic colour combination used by five-star Mayfair hotels, macaw parrots and that #TheDress meme from 2015.
As a shorthand for sophistication it is also a fine choice for a new launch from Jaeger-LeCoultre’s archetypal dress watch collection, its Master Ultra Thin – this one its moon phase edition.
With the brand’s flagship model, the Reverso, still getting plenty of marketing love thanks to its ongoing 90th anniversary celebrations (now in their third year!), it’s sometimes easy for J-LC’s other exemplary dress watches to fall under the radar.
And this is a good one.
As the name suggests, the Master Ultra Thin Moon is indeed a thin watch, just 9.33mm thick, about the width of a half-pence piece, for older readers. The fact that it also packs in a moon phase – the complication that accurately displays the sunlit portion of the Moon as seen from Earth – is an extra feat of engineering miniaturization.
On the dial, we have a masterclass in good taste and symmetrical design, as befits the watchmaking maison that gave us its Reverso’s celebrated ‘Golden Ratio’ proportions.
One’s eye may be drawn to the applied golden dots denoting the minutes, the tapered triangular ‘Dauphine’ hands, or the alternatively polished and brushed surfaces around the 18ct pink gold 39mm case.
Most likely you’re here for that dial, which now comes in a deep gradient blue sunray effect, the better to set it off against that gold case. Or, as J-LC has it, something that “adds dramatic impact to the timeless elegance of the design”.
The new watch runs on the brand’s own in-house automatic Calibre 925 movement, with a 70-hour power reserve.
There’s a transparent case back, ideal for showing off the movement’s oscillating weight, also in 18ct pink gold, while the watch comes on a high-end blue alligator leather strap.
With this release Jaeger-LeCoultre says it is “elevating the quintessential dress watch to a new level of contemporary sophistication”.
And we can’t really argue with that.
From: Esquire UK
