Jaeger-LeCoultre’s Atmos clocks are fantastic pieces of (old-school) tech in their own right.

Couple one with an automatic classic-art equipped cabinet and prepare for mind to be well and truly blown ;-)

[Press Release] In 1904, a Belgian financier, Adolphe Stoclet, commissioned Gustav Klimt to create the mural mosaics of a luxurious mansion he was building in Brussels based on plans by architect Josef Hoffmann. Among the painter’s sketches was the famous painting “The Kiss”, in which he concentrated all his wealth of decorative creativity. Over a century later, Klimt’s work is as vibrantly alive and fascinating as ever.

Jaeger-LeCoultre is dedicating to it a new ten-piece limited edition of the Atmos Marqueterie clock, a perfect embodiment of the Art Nouveau values reinterpreted by the hand craftsmanship traditions of the Manufacture. The cabinet faithfully reproduces
“The Kiss” and treats it to the virtuoso skills of rare crafts worthy to match the brilliance of the Austrian symbolist painter.

Over 1,200 tiny pieces of wood, individually cut and either left in their natural state or covered with gold leaf in the manner of Klimt himself, before being glued together, carpet the Atmos cabinet with a splendid entirely hand-made marquetry motif. The concern for detail cherished by the Grande Maison has inspired the artisan to associate various gold colours ranging from yellow to pink, in order to give life to the painting and accentuate its shimmering glow. The most precious varieties of wood mingle their veins and delicate hues in subtly graded shades of brown and orange, against a brown
amboyna burl background. Camassari boxwood rubs shoulders with Ceylon lemonwood, and paolo amarela flirts with madrona burl. Maplewood meets pearwood, tulipwood burl is associated with walnut and ashwood burl with Andes boxwood.

Above and beyond the technique itself which calls for several hundred hours of work, the artistic flair of the master-marquetry artist plays a determining role in the beauty of
the completed work.

Equipped with a discreet mechanical system featuring a button concealed within the motif, the cabinet majestically opens to reveal time, the theme that occupies its every part. Housed within its protective crystal glass surround, the clock steadily marks off the time with unfailing regularity. The regulator-type display of the hours and minutes is accompanied by month and moon-phase indications. Entirely in harmony with the golden, woody tones of the painter’s original work, the details of the displays form a radiant tableau on the natural mother-of-pearl dials. A cushion-cut yellow sapphire sits
majestically enthroned at 60 minutes to mark the celestial zenith, while the petrified wood lozenge-shaped hour-markers are a vivid reminder of the earth. The golden moon embodies a paradox, appearing on a petrified wood disc set with brilliant-cut diamonds shining like stars against its brown sky. The month wheel tops it with a silvertoned brass crown radiating a pure, contemporary spirit. The round curves of the dials,
the intricate visible gear wheels and the carousel of golden browny colours exquisitely echo Klimt’s arabesques, cleverly linking past to present within the same stage-setting.

The Atmos clock is quite obviously intimately bound up with time. Firstly by its style, which has been finding its way unperturbed through the decades for over 80 years. And
secondly by its almost perpetual mechanism, driven exclusively by variations in temperature. Today, while constantly perfected, the principle remains true to its origins:
tiny thermal changes supply the energy that the clock requires to operate. The secret lies in an hermetically sealed capsule containing a gaseous mixture – originally mercury –
which dilates when the temperature rises and contracts when it drops. Associated with the clock’s mainspring, the capsule or “concertina” works like a mechanical lung breathing in and out to wind the barrel in step with atmospheric fluctuations.

The slightest degree Celsius makes a difference and guarantees an additional 48-hour power reserve. Its ring-type or annular balance is a model of economy: by oscillating just twice a
minute, it uses 250 less energy than a classic wristwatch which calls for an average 300 beats per minute. This mechanism that has been environment-friendly since before the term was even used, is so sparing that it would take 60 million Atmos clocks to match the consumption of a standard 15-watt light bulb!

Technical Specifications

Movement:
• mechanical, almost perpetual, Jaeger-LeCoultre Calibre 582, crafted and assembled by
hand
• 386 parts
• annular balance, 60-second oscillation period
Functions:
• regulator-type display of the hours and minutes
• 24-hour indication
• month indication
• perpetual moon-phase indication (one-day difference every 3,821 years).
Dial :
• hour dial in mother-of-pearl, petrified wood hour-markers
• minute dial in mother-of-pearl with cushion-cut yellow sapphire at 60’, other hourmarkers
in petrified wood
• silver-toned brass month wheel
• moon disc in petrified wood set with diamonds, golden moon
Hands:
• blue varnished
Cabinet:
• exterior cabinet in precious wooden marquetry work – over 1,200 pieces of inlaid
wood – such as camassari boxwood, paolo amarelo, Andes boxwood, Ceylon
lemonwood, madrona burl, tulipwood burl, ashwood burl, walnut, pearwood,
maplewood… certain wooden parts are gold-leaf gilded
• this cabinet opens automatically by pressing a button hidden within the motif
• decoration inspired by a work by Austrian painter Gustav Klimt: “The Kiss”
• rhodiumed crystal glass inner cabinet
• rhodiumed base and feet
• crystal glass door
Dimensions:
• 321 mm x 171 mm x 257 mm
• numbered 10-piece limited series
Reference:
• Q554 33 02