I've heard that 2008 should be a quiet
year for Aston Martin in terms of product launches, so that the aficionados can
concentrate on their new watch !
The Aston Martin and Jaeger-LeCoultre
partnership has brought us several interesting timepieces in the last years. The
Amvox1 was a very sexy revival of the Memovox range and a first glimpse at the
new Polaris that is to come very soon. The Amvox1 is still around and alive and
has also created a new family in the JLC range whose subscribers are very keen
on!
The Amvox2 has brought the innovation perspective
in the family! The glass activated chronograph Amvox2 was a second success! The
only downside of this surprising watch was that the next one in the family
would have a hard time to do better!
Time has come to see now the Amvox3, the
third chapter that can't deceive and that won't deceive!
This new Amvox3
comes to embody the values of Jaeger-LeCoultre : innovation, craftmanship,
and pursuit of excellence !
You will discover
in this post a series of pictures of an Amvox3 prototype. The final watch will
be very close to this one, except apparently for the hour and minute hands that
should be in pink gold instead of the steel ones on my pics, and the red arrow
on the date hand will be in pink gold too in the final version.
The first new
feature on this watch is its black ceramic case. Ceramic cases are not new of
course but they are new for Jaeger-LeCoultre.
Jaeger-LeCoultre
's approach to ceramic casing has been to ensure that the use of a new material
would fit the long term wish of excellence and reliability of the "Grande
Maison".
The use of
ceramic is justified by the outstanding properties of this material. Ceramics
have an extreme resistance against pressure, wear and high temperatures. Aston
Martin like other sports car makers uses ceramic for the braking systems. Watches
don't have to stand such constraints but at least your Amvox3 may resist
well to scratches!
Ceramics are
also very light, slightly heavier than titanium but significantly lighter than
steel.
That approach
translates itself in a very advanced ceramic ZrO2.
The raw
materials used for this ceramic ZrO2 are Zirconium Oxide at 95% and Yttrium
Oxide at 5%. Yttrium Oxide is derived from aluminium and is supposed to ensure
a good stability of the final product. These two compounds are used in a
specific and desired degree of purity and are mixed with a black pigment (Zirconium
Oxide is a white powder) and an organic binder.
The main challenge
of producing such a ceramic is to avoid porosity and the way to do it is
to get a perfect homogeneity of the result.
Once you've
got your raw materials in the desired quality and proportions the second step
is the isostatic pressing of the materials.
The powders are
pressed under high pressure with the pigment and the binder. They are put under
pressure of 2000 bars in a water tank.
Once the
materials are pressed you get a block of ceramic. This block is then machined
(milled) to get a pre-shape of the desired case that means a geometrical
approach of the final case, not yet looking like the final case.
The next step
is called sintering. Sintering is a heating of the pressed material to make the
powders combine together. The cylinder of ceramic in our JLC case is sintered
in a kiln generating temperatures over 2000 Celsius degrees.
During
sintering the organic binder is evaporated off. This fact plus the powders
combination make the volume of the piece decrease by 20 to 30 %.
Once the
material is sintered it is necessary to control the homogeneity by radioscopy
(x-rays). This scrutiny is made to avoid any porosity that could break the case
in the end.
The resulted
block is extremely hard. The hardness is said to be 1500 Vickers, compared to 600
Vickers for steel and 2000 Vickers for sapphire crystal.
The next step
is the final shaping of the block of ceramic. The material is so hard that only
tools equipped with diamond crystals can be used. The block is worked to obtain
the ultimate case form. Each face and surface are worked separately, resulting
in a long process.
The final step
is the polishing. The ceramic case is polished with diamond body wheels and
diamond powder is used to help the polishing wheels.
The case has a
matt finish and some polished chamfers to complete the gorgeous result. The
case is finally like a "rough gem".
So we have a
very nice coach to begin making our new Amvox watch!
But an
outstanding coach doesn't make an outstanding watch. We also need a
fantastic engine. A fantastic engine is necessary in this Amvox3 like a powerful
engine is necessary in a car for performance, prestige, and over all
fascination!
This Amvox3 is
equipped with the Jaeger-LeCoultre calibre 988 reminding us of the 988C in the Extreme Lab. Basically
the Amvox3 is between the Master Tourbillon calibre 978 and the Extreme Lab
calibre. To be honest it is still technically closer to the Master Tourbillon
calibre but with the patented Extreme lab winding device and also with a deeply
worked modern design and decoration.
The Extreme lab
winding device consists in a 14% flatter rotor with carbon fiber arms that
bear an outer weight made of Iridium Platinum alloy. The iridium Platinum alloy
is the most dense non toxic physical body currently available. It is 12% denser
than gold and 5% denser than platinum.
Thanks to the better
efficiency of the denser metal on the outside and of the lightness of the carbon
fiber arms the overall weight of the rotating device has been decreased by 28%.
This allows an equivalent efficiency in spite of the lighter weight but brings
a better reliability and a better resistance to shocks as suspended weight is
lesser.
The rotor obviously
turns on ceramic ball bearings to reduce friction. This feature is now nearly
generalized to all JLC auto calibres.
This powerful
engine has been tuned for its sporting use. Three aspects are emphasized: "
a unique blend of sport and style", " a cutting edge technology"
and " classical design references". The finish of the plate,
bridges and various parts are chosen to show the strong spirit of the Aston
Martin watch. This is no ordinary watch!
The opened
wired pattern on the dial is made in brass and is covered with black pvd. It carries
black filled applied hour indexes that are also luminescent.
The dial is
conceived like an opened bonnet to admire the mechanism.
The upper
tourbillon bridge is gold plated (4N colour) and is made of brass. The open-worked
design is reminiscent of automobile themes.
The tourbillon
carriage is made in grade 5 titanium, is bevelled by hand and ruthenium coated.
It weighs a stupendous 280 mg.
The jumping
date mechanism appeared on the Master Tourbillon. It is here slightly modified
to jump at the end of the month. The date hand now follows a monthly trajectory
in arc to respect the 270 degrees hour arc of the original Amvox dial design. This
is also in my opinion a much more logical trajectory than the first one.
Some bridges, plates
and mobiles also have a ruthenium treatment while the AM/PM indicator bridge is
in blackened aluminium.
Both sapphire
crystals will receive an anti reflection treatment, what was not the case of
this prototype.
The seconds
hand has a symmetrical design so that its weight does not interfere with the
tourbillon carriage course. The final hand will have a luminescent side so that
we know which side must be used.
The balance
wheel has an inertia of 11.5 mgcm2 and is regulated to 4 htz, i.e. 28800 vph. It
is of course a variable inertia balance for lasting precision.
I have no doubt
that this Amvox is the most upscale Amvox so far. It is not an Extreme Lab of
course but it is not a Master Tourbillon either. The design is strong and
coherent with the Aston Martin connection. This is the most refined Amvox!
This is not my
favourite Jaeger-LeCoultre as the Reverso Gyrotourbillon 2 is unbeatable for
me, but you must also consider that this Amvox3 is also much more affordable.
Its retail
price should be in Europe half the price of
the Aston Martin V8 Vantage, around the price of the platinum Master
Tourbillon.
It will last
much longer than a new Aston Martin and certainly the 300 pieces of this
limited edition will be avidly looked after.
This watch is
too appealing and enough affordable to become anything else than a new dream
watch. That makes it a more dangerous watch than the Gyrotourbillon 2!
I have a
surprise for the end: here is the only available picture of the final watch
with the right hands.
Looking even much
better no?
I hope you
enjoyed it. We'll come back to this one soon, for sure.
Dje
ps : again my sincere thanks to the Jaeger-LeCoultre teams who gave me some of their precious time while preparing the soon to come SIHH 2008.