After dazzling us with the moon and a day and night complication, this year at Watches & Wonders 2022, Jaeger-LeCoultre ignites all senses with a romantic new Jaeger-LeCoultre Rendez-Vous Dazzling Star. The Manufacture has actually recreated the mystique and magic of a shooting star on your wrist. Depending on the movement of your wrist, a shooting star will appear on the dial at random moments – usually four to six times per hour – its unpredictability making it even more special. Intrigued aren’t you?
Well, to recreate this enchanting celestial phenomenon on the wrist, Jaeger-LeCoultre Rendez-Vous Dazzling Star has conceived and developed an entirely new mechanism. Let’s explore…
Although the mechanism is extremely enticing it comes with its share of challenges. It does, after all, appear to defy the laws of horology where everything is expressed through precisely calibrated, mathematical rhythms. But we are talking about Jaeger-LeCoultre here. Drawing on almost 190 years of expertise the engineers and watchmakers of the Manufacture have developed the new in-house automatic calibre 734, incorporating the new shooting star mechanism.
The blue aventurine dial of this Jaeger-LeCoultre Rendez-Vous Dazzling Star replicates an exquisite display of a star-studded night sky. But how does this mechanism work? Framed by a ring of diamonds, three discs are layered over each other in the centre of the dial. The first ring, an oval of aventurine, conceals the shooting star when it is inactive. Beneath it is a circular disc of aventurine with a cut-out of the shooting star which when activated, spins this disc, sending the star on its curving path across the upper dial. As the star passes, the cut-out reveals the deepest layer of the dial – a fixed disc of golden metal with a glowing gradient finish that accentuates the sense of movement.
True to the aesthetics of the Rendez-Vous collection, this central display is surrounded by a ring of applied numerals in the signature Floral font and applied hemispherical hour markers. The time is indicated on these scales by golden Floral hands. And finally to add that dazzling effect to it, the 36mm pink gold case is surrounded by two concentric rings of diamonds in Jaeger-LeCoultre’s prong (or ‘griffe’) setting. To complete the case, the upper surfaces of the lugs are set with diamonds and an inverted diamond is set into the crown.
This exquisite rich blue Jaeger-LeCoultre Rendez-Vous Dazzling Star is further accentuated either with a shiny blue alligator strap with a folding buckle, or by a sumptuous, fully-set pink gold bracelet specially designed for it. The bracelet’s lozenge-shaped links are grain-set with a total of 436 diamonds (for 4.88 carats) and linked seamlessly together, to wrap around the wrist with the suppleness of a ribbon.
Shooting stars are special and are visible only at certain times of the year. Hence, the thought of light streaks appearing across my wrist at random moments is quite mesmerising. With the new Rendez-Vous Dazzling Star, Jaeger-LeCoultre has certainly succeeded in an unprecedented feat of capturing a random cosmic phenomenon in a watchmaking complication. The question is how many wishes can I make and will they come true?