Jaeger-LeCoultre Unveils the Hybris Mechanica Grand Sonnerie at the International Venice Film Festival

This week at a star-studded party held at the spectacular Cipriani Hotel in Venice, Italy,  Jaeger-LeCoultre CEO Jérôme Lambert officially unveiled the Hybris Mechanica Grand Sonnerie.  Actually if you look closely in the photo below the watch appears to be missing from the safe (the top-center?) – but rest assured the watch was on hand for the evening!

Regular readers of this blog may recall that back in June First In Watches gave you the first look at the Jaeger-LeCoultre’s Hybris Mechanica Grande Sonnerie – a piece we deemed at the time as the new “King of Complications” for its tally of 26 functions and 1300 components in one – yes one – single watch (if you missed this article go check it out now!).  At this time we previewed not only the Grand Sonnerie but also the 2 other grand complications (the Gyrotourbillon and the Reverso a Tryptique) that Jaeger-LeCoultre would be offering as a part of a 3-piece, $2.5 million set, complete with a 2,600 pound German-made Doettling safe (which by the way has a special sound system installed that enables the actual chiming of the Grand Sonnerie to be heard outside the safe even when it is securely locked!).  The set was created in part to showcase Jaeger-LeCoultre’s greatest achievements over the brand’s long history.

At the time of our original article it was not clear to us what the significance of the number “55″ in ”Hybris Mechanica 55″ was – but now we know.  55 is the total # of complications represented in this incredible trio of watches.  Not bad, eh?

Hybris Mechanica 55

Now, as for those “26″ complications in the Grand Sonnerie (the left-most watch in the above photo)- we have seen Jaeger-LeCoulter’s official listing, which we present to you here:

1. Westminster Carillon

2. 4 crystal-gongs

3. Grande sonnerie

4. Petit sonnerie

5. Silence

6. Minute repeater

7. and 8. Flying tourbillon

9. and 10. Perpetual and instant calendar

11. Days

12. Retrograde days

13. Months

14. Retrograde months

15. Date

16. Retrograde date

17. Jumping hour and minutes

18. Regulation device with inertia-blocks

19. Strike power reserve indicator

20. Watch power reserve indicator

21. Secured incremental hours setting

22. and 23.  Secured incremental minutes setting forward and backward

24. Striking mode selector

25. Instant minute repeater activation

26. Automatic modes’ switch

I do wonder, though, if this list might be subject to debate within the horological community.  For example, why is a flying tourbillon considered to be 2 complications?  Same for the “perpetual and instant calendar” and the “secured incremental minutes setting forward and backward”?  Without having much technical understanding of these features it does seem at face value as if some double counting is going on – but again, I’m sure JLC has good reason for each of these.  Horological experts please feel free to clarify!

These details aside, with such an amazing set of watches, there is so much to say, so little time to say it – but thankfully Jaeger-LeCoultre created a really cool website dedicated to the Hybris Mechanica 55 trio that says a lot already!  The site is full of close up photos and explanations of the various components of thewatches, in particular the Grand Sonnerie – and so I highly recommend you check out it out by clicking here.

photos:  Jaeger-LeCoultre.