Introducing the Jaeger-LeCoultre Duomètre Unique Travel Time with hand-engraved dial (Specs & Price)

What is there to say about the Jaeger-LeCoultre Duomètre Unique Travel Time except that it is one of the best traveller’s watches created recently. There are several categories of timepieces that can indicate two timezones, starting from classical traveler GMT watches to office GMT watches and proper world-timers. However, only a handful of them have a second timezone adjustable to-the-minute. The Jaeger-LeCoultre Duomètre is one of them and it now comes with a sumptuous hand-engraved dial.

Let’s first talk functions. Most worldtimers are built to indicate the time in 24 different timezones around the world, however some nations felt the urge to create additional timezones with 15min, 30min or 45min deviations. Kind of problematic for the watchmaking industry, right. Some (a few) watches however came with a solution, like for instance the recently revealed Glashutte Original Senator Cosmopolite or the Vacheron-Constantin Patrimony World Time, two watches that indicate the 37 time zones that our world comprises. Jaeger-LeCoultre also has its own answer to this issue, with a watch that has the ability to be adjusted to-the-minute, independently from the rest of the timekeeping indications.

The Jaeger-LeCoultre Duomètre Unique Travel Time features two indications of the time – one on the left for the travel time and one on the right for the home time. Everything can be adjusted via the single crown, with the pushers at left side of the case making it easy to adjust the jumping hour indication of the second timezone. The second / travel timezone’s minute hand can be adjusted via the crown, in order to set it to time-zones with no full hour deviation.

At six on the dial sits another complication that allows the owner to have a complete view of the 24 time-zones around the world. This sub-dial rotates once a day and thus, due to darken zones, works as a day-night indicator also. The dial finally comprises a large second hand on the central axis and two power reserve indicators – below each time-zone sub-dial. Why two of them? We’ll get back on this later.

The main novelty is the finish of the dial. Usually, the Duemètre collection features dials with a silvery-white colour, slightly grained like an old sheet of paper. This new edition features a hand-engraved surface, called ‘échoppé’ in French. This highly textured dial is obtained by removing some material in all directions with a specific chisel. The result is an aleatory pattern, at the same time being nicely delicate, shiny and raw. The case however is the same than on the classical edition of the Jaeger-LeCoultre Duomètre Unique Travel Time, with its 42mm diameter and its mirror polished flat surfaces and brushed flanks. This edition is only available in Extra White 18k gold with a black alligator strap.

The movement is certainly, together with this hand-engraved dial, the masterpiece of this Jaeger-LeCoultre Duomètre Unique Travel Time. The reason for the twin power-reserve indicators is explained by an intelligent conception, the Dual-Wing construction. This means that there are actually two separate movements, each with a gear train and a main spring barrel (with their own power-reserve indicator). One is devoted to display the local time and the second to show the time in a second time zone. They are connected in the middle by a shared regulating organ and wound by the unique crown (forward for the first barrel and backward for the second barrel).

The movement is entirely hand finished and features chamfered bridges, blued hands and rayonnantes Geneva Stripes. The main plate and the bridges are made from untreated German silver, a material that gives off this warm yellowish colour.

The Jaeger-LeCoultre Duomètre Unique Travel Time with hand-engraved dial is a limited edition of 200 pieces, priced at 48.600 Euros / 51.000 USD (instead of 44.100 Euros / 46.200 USD for the non-limited edition in white gold). More details on the dedicated page – Jaeger-LeCoultre.com.

Some specifications

• Case: 1Extra-white 18k gold, 42mm in diameter, 13.65 mm thick, polished lugs and satin-brushed mid case, water resistance to 5 atm (50m)
• Indications: home time (hours and minutes), travel time (jumping hours; digital 2nd time-zone display), world map, indication of the two power reserves
• Movement: manually-wound movement, Jaeger-LeCoultre Calibre 383, crafted, assembled and decorated by hand, 50-hour power reserve for each of the two barrels, 498 parts, 54 jewels, 28’800 vibrations per hour