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Dual-Wing, the mechanical movement that is revolutionising the watch industry


“An evolution? No, a revolution.”

Jérôme Lambert, CEO Jaeger-LeCoultre

“In devising its unprecedented Dual-Wing mechanism, the Manufacture Jaeger-LeCoultre not only laid the cornerstone of a new collection named Duomètre, but also added a whole new chapter to watchmaking history.

Not so long ago, entrusting a traditional watch movement with the mission of driving an additional complication alongside its time indications implied the risk of jeopardising its operating accuracy. The wealth of ingenuity deployed by the finest watchmakers could not counteract physical laws nor overcome micromechanical limits. Nonetheless, the movements they succeeded in making were deemed satisfactory depending on whether the focus was on technical performance, precision or aesthetics – but a choice had to be made between one or other of these three parameters.

Owning a complication watch uniting these three ingredients appeared to a utopian pipedream. And then one day, in the workshops of the Manufacture Jaeger-LeCoultre, at the heart of the Vallée de Joux, in Switzerland, an idea emerged: what if one were to begin with a blank page? What if, instead of improving existing technical solutions, one were to start from scratch? What if, rather than aiming for evolutions, one were to opt for a revolution? This reasoning would give rise to the Dual-Wing concept, featuring two separate and independent mechanisms housed within a single case: one of them responsible for powering the time indications, and the other for driving an additional function.

Two separate and independent mechanisms united in one case? If that were in fact all it took, the Jaeger-LeCoultre watchmakers would “merely” have created a masterpiece of miniaturisation. They actually did far more by linking the two mechanisms to a single regulating organ, thereby guaranteeing chronometer-worthy operating accuracy.

So yes, the Dual-Wing concept that was the starting point for the Duomètre collection is indeed a revolution, since it now affords the possibility of possessing a watch reconciling accuracy with unprecedented horological complexity.

While the principle was a watch connoisseur’s dream, the theory still had to be translated into concrete reality. The first challenge of the Dual-Wing concept was to power a chronograph, and the birth of the new Duomètre à Chronographe represented one of the major events of the 2007 watchmaking year.

Then came the turn of the calendar, a much sought-after complication, to benefit from the Dual-Wing concept: 2010 saw the release of the Duomètre à Quantième Lunaire.

2012 brings the introduction of the Duomètre à Sphérotourbillon. A new revolution in the art of horological precision…”


Original Language: English
Langue d'origine: Anglais